Portraits

Blessed with a little extra time in D.C. last Sunday before the start of my annual librarians' meeting (you can see blogs from last year's meeting here) I made a beeline for a major museum that I'd managed to miss on earlier visits:


This is the impressive facade of the National Portrait Gallery and Museum of American Art—two museums for the price of one. And considering the price is free, it's really a bargain!

Even just getting to walk through the building is a treat. This is the Great Hall up on the third floor:

Here's the fabulous skylight crowning this space:

And, of course, the portraits are very enjoyable. There is a gallery containing not only portraits of all the Presidents, but some newsreel footage of them from the mid-20th century on.

Even more fun are the collections of non-political figures, like the "Champions" area featuring sports icons like Nolan Ryan [and how about those Rangers?!].

They have most of the portraits (and some sculptures, as you see on the left) in rooms according to chronology, and it's quite entertaining to see who all were contemporaries of whom. Generally speaking, I enjoy likenesses in less than completely formal sittings, and found the pieces like the John Mitchell bust to be my favorites.

Doesn't it look just like him? Shifty eyes and all.

Combining the Portrait Gallery with a more general art museum is a great idea, since looking at pictures of people, no matter how varied and well-executed, after a while wears a bit on the tourist.

So you just wander over into the art galleries and see some wonderful pieces such as these:

Thomas Hart Benton's Achelous and Hercules


The Dying Tecumseh by Ferdinand Pettrich

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone by Thomas Moran
(I've been there but my Dad's slides don't quite compare to this!)

I saw almost everything in the museum before my legs gave out. Perhaps I can pick up the galleries I missed on a future trip.

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I was able to do a few more fun things during my stay, in and around meetings. You can read about some of them, and also see more about the Portrait Gallery, in this London blog post, and I'll work on a collection of "out and about" photos in the next few days.