Collection Highlights

The Corcoran’s signature and world-renowned collection of American art dating from 1718 to 1945 began as the private holdings of William Wilson Corcoran. His initial collection of landscape paintings, genre scenes, portraits, and sculptures has grown to encompass over 500 paintings, 200 sculptures, and 2,400 works on paper. Key 20th-century acquisitions were made beginning in 1907, with the advent of the Corcoran’s Biennial. The collection’s particular strengths include Hudson River School painting, American Impressionism, and early 20th-century realism.

The Corcoran’s decorative arts collection, though not as extensive as the Gallery’s other holdings, includes excellent examples in a variety of media. The collection includes Greek antiquities; Italian Renaissance maiolica; Islamic carpets; 18th century French tapestries, furniture, architectural ornamentation; and modern and contemporary ceramics. The centerpiece of the collection is the Salon Doré, the Corcoran’s 18th-century gilded French period room. It was originally part of the Hôtel de Clermont, an early 18th-century private residence in Paris.

The Corcoran’s collection of European art includes painting, sculpture, and works on paper from the 14th through the early 20th centuries. The collection is particularly well-regarded for its 17th-century Dutch landscape and genre paintings, 18th- through early 19th-century British paintings, and 19th-century French paintings, including significant holdings of Realist, Barbizon, and Impressionist landscapes. Included are works by Jean-Baptise-Camille Corot, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Eugène Delacroix, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, Gerard ter Borch, and Aelbert Cuyp.

From its inception, the Corcoran has placed contemporary art at the core of its mission and identity. The museum collects the art of the present for display and interpretation alongside the Gallery’s ever-expanding historical collections. The Corcoran’s pursuit of the new has ensured that the museum and its collections remain vibrant, constantly looking to the future while evaluating its past. The post-1945 collection includes paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, new media, and installation art. The collection features works from post-war artists such as Willem de Kooning, Ellsworth Kelly, Cy Twombly, Richard Diebenkorn, Joan Mitchell, Bruce Nauman, Martin Puryear, Jessica Stockholder, Anne Truitt,  Robert Colescott, and others.

In the late 19th century, the Corcoran was among the first museums in the United States to acquire photographs. The museum began collecting photography and media art in earnest in the 1970s and has since obtained works in a wide variety of media made between the 1850s and the present day. The collection now includes more than 6,500 photographs, videos, and digital works, which together reflect diverse ideas and styles important to the evolution of photographic history.