While millions of visitors experience the Smithsonian museums each year, many fail to venture beyond the National Mall. Only two Metro stops north of the Smithsonian station, the National Portrait Gallery has on exhibit a fine collection of portraiture. The collection includes presidential portraits, as well as poses from some of the most famous political, entertainment and professional sports figures of the last three centuries. Known as the Reynolds Center, this museum also showcases are variety of original American Art, from the Gilded Age and American impressionism to Western Art and Moran’s fantastical panoramas of natural landscapes. Less than a mile walk from the Washington Monument, this Smithsonian collection should not be missed.
The Great Hall and the Luce Center
Once the United State Patent Office, the building is over 150 years old; a rectangular structure with a central courtyard, now enclosed. The F Street entrance has a façade of Greek columns which support banners advertising specific exhibits within. Logistically, the museum can easily be managed by starting with the galleries on the 3rd floor returning to the 1st floor exit. The 3rd floor is historically significant in that it was the location of Abraham Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Ball. The Lincoln Gallery houses an amazing display of contemporary art including a massive stallion made of driftwood and the United States in neon. High vaulted ceilings and stained class define the Great Hall. In these galleries, portraits of renowned Americans, from great authors and musicians to first ladies and pop culture icons, are on display. Each gallery represents a two-decade time frame of twentieth century portraiture. The adjacent Luce Center is yet another architecturally impressive wing of the building. The Center works to preserve and catalog the museum’s collection, with many art pieces, from sculpture and coinage to paintings and tapestries, on display on the mezzanine levels. The Center also provides a monthly scavenger sheet for visiting children. Images of artwork along with captioned clues, allow participants, with the aid of a computer, to locate the selected art.
Presidential Portraits and American Impressionism
Two galleries on the 2nd floor are dedicated to portraits of the U.S. Presidents. Many nineteenth-century presidents, including the famous Lansdowne painting of Washington, are on display in the first gallery. The second gallery showcases every twentieth century president since Franklin Roosevelt. This middle floor is also a representation of art collected since the country’s founding. Art from the Revolutionary and Civil Wars to George Catlin’s extensive portraits of Native Americans define the floor’s eastern wing. Thomas Moran’s stylized depictions of the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Yellowstone are displayed on the northern wing. Works from John Singer Sargent and Thomas Eakins represent America’s Gilded Age.
American Origins and Folk Art
The portraits of distinguished statesman, authors, inventors, and other notables who lived prior to the twentieth century make up most of the American Origins gallery on the 1st floor. Famous paintings of Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, and Thomas Edison, among others are exhibited here. The southeast wing of this floor is devoted to a theme entitled “Portraiture Now”: galleries where living artists can present their most current work, created using a variety of media. Media variety is also present among the Folk Art galleries on this floor. Indigenous people, from Appalachia to the Great Plains, show amazing ingenuity in their artistry. A Washingtonian of African-American descent created an entire throne room using discarded aluminum foil as his medium.
The Kogod Courtyard
This open-air plaza was historically a place where downtown Washingtonians could spend a tranquil lunch break on manicured grass and shrubbery, perfectly placed tulip beds, two corner fountains, under a canopy of trees. In 2007, the Smithsonian enclosed the courtyard with a windowed canopy. Some smaller trees remain, but most of the floor is now tiled. Visitors can stop at the café for lunch and dine out on courtyard tables. Musicians often perform.
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