Behind Glass – National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

There is something fitting about encountering this face through two layers of separation – the veil the sculptor carved, and the museum case that now holds her. This is Fantasy Bust of a Veiled Woman (c.1865–1870), a glazed terracotta by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, believed by some to be a portrait of Marguerite Bellanger – actress, courtesan, and one of the most talked-about women in Second Empire Paris. She looks downward, away from us, as if the gaze of the viewer is precisely what she is not interested in returning.

The Vigil

Photography

Some silences are too profound for words. Augustus Saint-Gaudens understood this when he created the Adams Memorial — modeled between 1886 and 1891, deliberately left untitled by its creator, resisting any single interpretation. This bronze cast resides at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC. The full memorial stands in Rock Creek Cemetery, where it has kept its wordless vigil for over a century.