PRESIDENTS, SPORTS HEROES and Much Much More at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

Abraham Lincoln, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

My visit to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, was on February 12^th, Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, so, of course, my first stop was in the gallery of American Presidents. Lincoln is depicted life size, standing in his office at the White House. The guide at the Visitors' Desk in the lobby told me that when Mary Todd Lincoln first saw the painting she thought he looked so real that he was still alive.

The National Portrait Gallery shares a building with the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). (See my post of June 10, 2024.) Each of the four floors of the museum has galleries for both museums. During my visit I zigzagged between them before returning to the courtyard on the first level.

Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Sandra Day O'Conner, Ruth Bader Ginsberg 

A visit to the Portrait Gallery is a walk through American history, beginning on the first floor with portraits from 1600 to 1900. In the American Presidents gallery on the second floor George Washington greets visitors at the entrance, looking very much the Father of our Country.

American Presidents Gallery. George Washington at entrance.

Paintings of other Presidents vary considerably in size and style—each President choosing his own portraitist. Some of the paintings are in a traditional portrait style...

Bill Clinton, painting by Chuck Close

...while others, like those of John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, are depicted larger than life and in a more contemporary style.

John Kennedy, painting by Elaine de Kooning

Barack Obama, painting by Kehinde Wiley

Adjacent to the President's Gallery is a gallery dedicated to The Struggle for Justice, beginning with a large painting of Congressman John Lewis. 

Congressman John Lewis, painting by Michael Shane Neal

Other figures in the gallery include singer Marian Anderson, activist and journalist Charlayne Hunter Gault, Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor in the Roosevelt Administration, and Minaru Yasui, civil rights attorney who fought for Japanese American rights during and after World War II. Each portrait is accompanied with a panel briefly citing the person’s role in history.

Michelle Obama, painting by Amy Sherald

I then climbed the elegant stairway to the third floor in search of Michelle Obama’s portrait in the gallery of Twentieth-Century Americans. The painting by Amy Sherald, of Michelle Obama in a flowing white dress, dominates the room.

I then climbed more stairs to reach the third-floor mezzanine where paintings of American sports heroes line the wall. 

Gallery of Champions, Arthur Ashe

There I found baseball players, football stars, tennis champions—men and women athletes whose names have become part of history. At the other end of the mezzanine are portraits of people from the entertainment world—actors, singers, dancers.

Third floor mezzanine.

The paintings on exhibit are just the tip of the iceberg, a selected few of the thousands of portraits in the Smithsonian collection. You can find more by searching the National Portrait Gallery's website. You may be surprised at what you will discover!

 

ON TOUR IN EUROPE WITH THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY, 5 CITIES, 14 DAYS--Guest Post by Tom and Susan Weisner

The Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg Symphony Hall, Germany.

Our friends, Susan and Tom Weisner, went along with their son Jeffrey and granddaughters and family on a tour of Europe with the National Symphony in February 2024. Jeff plays the double bass in the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in Washington, DC. Seven flights, six train trips, and many bus transfers later, here are some highlights from five cities along the way of the 14-day tour.

La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain--still under construction.

Mercado de la Boqueria, Barcelona.

First stop, Barcelona, Spain, capital of the Catalan region of Spain. The Antoni Gaudi designed and imagined La Sagrada Familia Cathedral is a highlight, as is the Ramblas walking street off of Catalan Square, and the Mercado de la Boqueria open market.

View of Toledo, Spain.

The Gothic style cathedral, Toledo, dates from the 1200s.

The narrow streets of Toledo--cathedral dimly visible in background.

We then took a train to Madrid, and a half day train ride and tour of Toledo – a wonderful historic Spanish city about 40 minutes from Madrid.

Berlin Wall Museum.

We all then flew to Berlin with the NSO. We visited the cold war era Berlin Wall museum and model of the former “Checkpoint Charlie” crossing; the new glass dome on the German Parliament or Reichstag Building, and the Holocaust memorial site near the Brandenburg Gate. 

In Berlin we toured the new German Parliament glass dome which looks directly into the parliament chamber.

Holocaust Memorial, Berlin.

We also took our granddaughters to the Computer Games Historical Museum in the former East Berlin on the Karl Marx Allee, the Illusions museum, and the Spy Museum (sorry, no photos)! There are huge shopping and walking streets and parks in Berlin as well. The rest of the family flew home from Berlin – school and work!

In Cologne, on the way to the train station.

Next Susan and I took the train to Cologne, Germany, where we met up again with the orchestra, and went to a concert in their  beautiful concert hall. We then took the train for one day to Kassel, Germany, for a brief visit, where Tom’s father and grandparents had lived until they fled Hitler in 1938.

La Scala, Milan, Italy.

The NSO chartered a plane to Milan, Italy, to play a concert at La Scala for one night. The La Scala experience was great, but no time for anything else to see in Milan, because we flew the next morning to Hamburg, Germany, the last stop on the tour. We and the NSO stayed at the Elbphilharmonie, an amazing new building. (See first photo.) The Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany, which opened in 2017 with multiple concert halls and hotel all built on top of an existing former warehouse. The hotel is in the building with the symphony halls, and the public can walk up to see the views of the city.

Concert hall, Hamburg.

The Brahms Music Museum in Hamburg, Germany. Can you name the seven famous composers?

Inside the Brahms Music Museum.

Many thanks to Susan and Tom for sharing highlights of their trip with The Intrepid Tourist!