I mention DC because sometimes when I do a search for National Gallery I get London. I’m offering a little eye candy today. All the pictures are from National Art Gallery and all are in the public domain.

Lady with a Harp: Eliza Ridgely artist: Thomas Sully, 1818. What’s very entertaining to me about this picture is that Eliza is playing a lever harp, not a concert grand. Harps like this are still very common.

Upright Harp/Piano artist: William High c. 1937 watercolor, graphite, and pen and ink on paperboard. I love this picture even though I’ve never seen such a thing. The harpists that I know see a lot of connection between playing the piano and playing the harp…

David Playing the Harp German 15th Century c. 1500 woodcut If you search for “harp” at the National Gallery website you will get dozens of pictures of King David. I liked this one enormously.

The sculpture pictured below is also enchanting, if not quite Biblical. David’s harps are variations on lap harps, meaning, “smaller.”

David Triumphant artist: Thomas Crawford model, 1845/1846, carved ,1848 marble and bronze

Below are links to two pictures of concert harps, not in the public domain. A concert harp has a thick column running up the front of the harp, and pedals by the musician’s feet. The tuning of the harp can be changed instantly with the pedals, a necessary bit of architecture if you want to play a piece that changes keys from C to G for instance. On a lever harp, to change the key, you must flip dozens of levers. The concert harp has some serious mechanical action inside that thick pillar. In the first picture, look at the position of the player’s foot. She’s working a pedal.

https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.197924.html

https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.214244.html

Header art Madonna and Child with Angels artist: Hans Memling after 1479 oil on panel