Day at the National Portrait Gallery

I feel like the list of things I want to do in Washington D.C. will never be accomplished. We realized we haven’t even seen all of the Smithsonian Museums. There are only 19 and that should be doable within the times we have visited and the almost 2 years we have lived here. We decided one rainy Saturday, we would hit up the National Portrait Gallery which is confusing because it contains landscapes when you venture over to the American Art Museum (they share buildings). I do love a day of looking at art. My Grandma Lucille and my Aunt Robin are both very talented artists and I grew up learning how to appreciate good art. I’m glad we could check this one off our list!

Painting of Italian landscape and women that I loved.

I loved all of the landscapes and the way each artist used so many different colors to capture lighting. 

This painting was huge and they had a wide bench for people to just sit and view the artwork. 

Neatest bronze statue of George Washington himself. 

I love reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow during Halloween and seeing this made me want a painting to hang up during Halloween too.

Miniature museum on display. 

We stepped over into the American Museum of Art portion which is the Old Patent Office Building. It's considered to be Greek Revival Architecture with porticos modeled after the Parthenon in Athens, double curving staircases, colonnades, vaulted galleries and skylights as long as a city block! It was so beautiful to see in person. 

This was the modern art section. This artist had made state outlines with neon lighting and paired each state with t.v.'s that had shows or movies that were associated with each state. Missouri had 'Meet Me in St. Louis' and Oklahoma had 'Oklahoma'. Idaho just had images of potatoes. 

Oh how I love Julie Andrews. 

The most beautiful stained windows.

Such a beautiful quilt - hand stitched down to every detail. 

This statue was absolutely breathtaking. Carved from marble but the folds on her dress looked like silk. I could have look at the details on it all afternoon. Such a fun day at the museums!