On Day Two, we walked down F Street, noting all the attractions along the way that we might want to visit on another trip, such as the International Spy Museum. However, the museum's neighbor, the Shake Shack, required much closer inspection and caused about a 20 minute delay in our morning. It was well worth it:
Cape Cod Morning by Edward Hopper, 1950 |
Grandma Moses Goes to the Big City by Grandma Moses (Anna Mary Robertson), 1946 |
Can Fire in the Park by Beauford Delaney, 1946 |
Young Pastry Cook by William H. Johnson, c. 1928-30 |
The Knockdown by Mahonri Young, 1931 |
Three Acrobats on a Unicycle by Chaim Gross (1957) |
Artists on WPA by Moses Soyer, 1935 |
Untitled-Caparena Figure by Clarence and Grace Woolsey, c. 1961-72 [made of bottlecaps] |
Various untitled works by Albert Zahn, c. 1924-1950 |
Healing Machine by Emery Blagdon, c. 1950s-1986 |
The Throne by James Hampton |
The Kathedral--Mother Symbolically Represented by Achilles G. Rizzoli, 1935 |
Crucifixion by William Edmondson, c. 1932-1937 |
The Way We Was by Herbert Singleton, 1990 |
The Beginning of Life in the Yellow Jungle byThornton Dial, Sr., 2003 |
Ryder's House by Edward Hopper, 1958 |
Most of our time was spent in the National Portrait Gallery. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this part of the museum. So many of the iconic portraits that have been used in history textbooks and other places have their home here. See how many you recognize!
There were a lot of portraits of early colonists, Founding Fathers/Mothers, and VIP political figures:
Pocahontas (c. 1596-1617), a Native American who converted to Christianity and married John Rolfe. Portrait by an unidentified artist after 1616. |
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Colonial statesman. Portrait by Joseph Siffred Duplessis, c. 1785. [Note: This painting of Franklin was selected for the engraving on the redesigned $100 bill.] |
Washington Resigning His Commission by Ferdinand Pettrich, c. 1841 |
Thomas Paine (1737-1809), Colonial political activist. Portrait by Laurent Dabos, c. 1792. |
The Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834), French aristocrat and military officer who joined the colonists to fight in the Revolutionary War. Unknown artist, c. 1786. |
Side view |
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), American Founding Father and first Secretary of the Treasury. Portrait by John Trumball, 1806. |
Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the U.S., by Ralph E.W. Earl, 1836-37 [Jackson selected the plan, archtiects, and site for the new Patent Office Building, in which this portrait now hangs.] |
Babe Ruth batting in Dugdale Park, Seattle on Oct. 19, 1924 [The Babe hit three home-runs that day, and the first was the longest drive hit in Seattle up to that date.] |
New York Daily News, Aug. 17, 1948 |
Baseball autographed by Babe Ruth in 1926 and a bat he used in 1920 |
There were quite a few portraits of authors, one of the things I liked best about the Portrait Museum:
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), author of The Scarlet Letter, The House of Seven Gables, etc. Portrait by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, 1862. |
Noah Webster (1758-1843), creator of the first American dictionary, which was published in 1828. Portrait by James Herring, 1833 |
Washington Irving (1783-1859), the author of "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Bust by Edward Ball Hughes,1836. |
Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849), America's first horror
writer. Portrait by Samuel Stillman Osgood, 1845.
[Doesn't this look a trifle TOO jolly for Poe?]
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Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), author of
Uncle Tom's Cabin. Portrait by Alanson Fisher, 1853.
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Frederick Douglass (c. 1818-1895), escaped slave,
abolitionist, and author. Unidentified artist, c. 1844
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), the poet
who gave us "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,"
"The Song of Hiawatha," and "Paul Revere's Ride."
Portrait by Thomas Buchanan Read, 1869.
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Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), author of Little Women and many other books.
Bronze bust by Frank Edwin Elwell, 1891.
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John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), poet and
abolitionist. Portrait by Robert Peckham, 1833.
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William Dean Howells (1837-1920), friend of Mark Twain
and author of The Rise of Silas Lapham. Shown here
reading to his daughter Mildred.
Bronze relief by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1898.
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Walt Whitman (1819-1892), poet, author of "Leaves
of Grass." Portrait by John White Alexander, 1889.
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Bret Harte (1836-1902), author of stories
and essays about the American West.
Portrait by John Pettie, 1884
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Henry James (1843-1916), author of Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, and more. Portrait by Jacques-Emile Blanche. |
Edith Wharton (1862-1937), shown here as a young girl from a wealthy family, but later known for writing The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, and other novels. Portrait by Edward Harrison May, 1870. |
Samuel Clemens (1835-1910), aka Mark Twain, famous for his books Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, among others. Portrait by John White Alexander, 1912 or 1913. |
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), author of The Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise, and other novels. Portrait by David Silvette, 1935. |
Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945), author of Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy. Portrait by Henry Varnum Poor, 1933 |
e. e. cummings (1894-1962), poet known for defying rules of punctuation, capitalization, and arrangement of words on the page. Self-portrait, 1958. [I had no idea he had studied art in Paris!] |
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), writer who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. Portrait by William A. Smith, 1961 |
There were several portraits of artists that caught my attention:
John Singleton Copley (1738-1815), American painter. Self-portrait, 1780-1784. |
Edward Hicks (1780-1849), painter and Quaker minister. Portrait by Edward's cousin Thomas Hicks (c. 1838). |
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), a painter most famous for his portrait of his mother. Sculpture by Joseph Edgar Boehm, 1872. |
John James Audobon, Self Portrait (1785-1851), naturalist and artist. Self-portrait, 1822-23. |
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), portrait artist. Portrait by Magda Pach, 1943. |
There were explorers and naturalists:
Daniel Boone (1734-1820), American frontiersman. Portrait by Chester Harding, 1820. |
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John Wesley Powell (1834-1902), explorer of the American West. Portrait painted by Edmund Messer, 1889. |
John Muir (1838-1914), naturalist and author. Portrait painted by Orlando Rouland, c. 1919. |
Industrialists, businessmen, and fortune-makers probably had their portraits painted more that most Americans:
Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877), American businessman who unified America's fragmented transportation system. Portrait by Nathaniel Jocelyn, 1846. |
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), American industrialist and philanthropist. Portrait by an unidentified artist, c. 1905. |
Not a very flattering portrait of American industrialist John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) by Paul Manship, 1918. |
The profile view is even less flatterirng. |
Inventors and scientists are included:
Alexander Graham Bell (1947-1922), inventor of the telephone. Portrait by Moses Wainer Dykaar, 1922. [Very interesting hairdo.] |
Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931), inventor. Portrait by Abraham Archibald Anderson, 1890. |
Thomas Edison's tin-foil phonograph, patented in 1878. I think it's the same gizmo depicted in the painting of Edison above. |
Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974), Aviator, first to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. Bust by Jo Davidson, 1939. |
Albert Einstein (1879-1955), theoretical physicist who developed the Theory of Relativity. Portrat by Max Westfield, 1944 |
I'm glad the curators chose to include important religious figures:
Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), founder of the Christian Science faith. Bust by Luella Varney Serrao, 1889. |
It was fun to see the next two paintings hanging side-by-side in a hallway:
Joseph Smith (1805-1844), who founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1830. Portrait by Adrian Lamb in 1971 after an unidentified artist. |
Brigham Young (1801-1877), Prophet and President of the LDS Church following Joseph Smith; leader of the Mormon migration to Utah. Engraving by Augustin Francois Lemaitre, c. 1855 |
Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), Quaker, abolitionist, and women's civil rights advocate. Portrait by Joseph Kyle, 1842. |
Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), Transcendentalist, intellectual. Portrait by Thomas Hicks, 1848. |
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), feminist, women's rights advocate. Portrait by Anna Elizabeth Klumpke, 1889. |
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), reformer and advocate for women's suffrage. Portrait by Adelaide Johnson, 1892. |
Jane Addams (1860-1935), social activist for the poor. Portrait by George de Forest Brush, 1906 |
Booker T. Washington (1956-1915), African-American reformer and educator. Bronze bust by Richmond Barthe, 1946. |
Thomas Hart Benton (1782-1858), senator from Missouri and influential political figure. Portrait by Thomas Lee Boyle, c. 1861. |
John Brown (1800-1859), abolitionist. Portrait by Ole Peter Hansen Balling, 1872. [Don't you just love his wild hair and crazed expression?] |
Daniel Webster (1782-1852), New England politician and opposer of states' rights. Portrait by Francis Alexander, 1835. |
Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861), Illinois senator who was Lincoln's opponent in the Presidential election of 1860. Portrait by Duncan Styles, 1860. |
Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), Confederate general. Portrait by Edward Caledon Bruce, c. 1864-1865, |
The Council of War. Grant lays out his plans as observed by President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Plaster statue by John Rogers, 1873 after the 1868 original.
Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), suffragette and author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Portrait begun c. 1910 by John Elliot, finished c. 1925 by William H. Cotton |
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), General of all the Union armies and future President of the U.S. Portrait by Ole Peter Hansen Balling, 1865. |
There was a significant amount of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia:
Momento Mori, Abraham Lincoln by an unidentified artist, 1865 |
Emancipation Proclamation. Lithograph by Gilman R. Russell, 1865. |
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), 16th American President. Portrait by Charles Wesley Jarvis, 1861. |
Abraham Lincoln by Augustus Saint- Gaudens, modeled 1887, cast c. 1923 [Compare this tired Lincoln with the more youthful portrait above.] |
The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation Before the Cabinet. Lithograph by Alexander Hay Ritchie, 1866. |
There were a few random portraits of contemporary figures that stood out for me:
Rosalyn Carter (1927--), wife of President Jimmy Carter. Pastel by Robert Templeton, 1977. |
Fred Rogers (1928-2003), Children's television personality. Photograph by Nathan Benn, 1990. |
At this point we moved out of the Portrait Gallery and back into the American Art Museum.
Preamble, license plates on vinyl and wood by Mike Wilkins, 1959. |
Achelous and Hercules by Thomas Hart Benton, 1947. |
Wheat by Thomas Hart Benton, 1967 |
The Bronco Buster by Frederic Remington, modeled 1895, cast 1910 |
Shapes of Fear by Maynard Dixon, 1956 |
Jungle Palm by Leo Amino, 1954; Flag Waving Machine by George Rickey, 1954; The Hyades by Ibram Lassaw, 1951 |
Girl Skating by Abastenia St. Leger Eberle (1907) |
I love Abbott Handerson Thayer, who lived from 1841-1929. Some see his paintings, often of idealized women, as sentimental, but I love them anyway.
Stevenson Memorial by Abbott Handerson Thayer, 1903 [The letters "VAEA," the name of the mountain in Samoa where Robert Louis Stevenson is buried, are inscribed on this work.] |
My Children (Mary, Gerald, and Gladys Thayer) by Abbott Handerson Thayer, c. 1897 |
Virgin Enthroned by Abbott Handerson Thayer, 1891 |
Angel by Abbott Handerson Thayer (1887) [This is one of my favorites. The model was Thayer's daughter Mary.] |
Adoration of St. Joan of Arc by J. William Fosdick (1896) |
Adams Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (modeled 1886-91, cast 1969) [This work has such a unique story that I've included the museum notes below.] |
America Receiving the Nine Muses, painting on inside of piano lid by Thomas Wilmer Dewing, 1903. [Commissioned by President Theodore Roosevelt for the White House] |
Peacocks and Peonies stained glass by John La Farge, 1882 |
The Vine by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, 1921 and 1923 |
The Caress by Mary Cassatt, 1902 |
Sophie Hunter Colston by William R. Leigh, 1896 |
The Concord Minuteman of 1775 by Daniel Chester French [sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial], 1917 |
Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler (Mrs. John Jay Chapman) by John Singer Sargent, 1893 |
Untitled American Indian Woman and American Indian Man by an Unidentified artist, c. 1850-90 |
The Top of Mount Sinai with the Chapel of Elijah by Miner Kilbourne Kellogg, 1844 |
Puck by Harriet Hosmer, 1856 |
I love the mushrooms under his mushroom. |
Reproof by Edward R. Thaxter, c. 1878-1880 |
La Mano Poderosa (The All-Powerful Hand) by the Puerto Rican Caban group, c. 1875-1925 |
Our Lady of Light by Gloria Lopez Cordoba, 1997 |
Detail |
Liberty by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, c. 1884 [This small- scale version was on view in the Capitol rotunda from 1884-1887. |
The Four Justices by Nelson Shanks, 2012 [Counterclockwise from bottom: Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor] |
There are so many familiar names and faces at this museum. It's almost like a high school reunion. Either you know you've seen the painting/person before and you just can't quite identify it, or you're amazed at how well it has aged and how timeless it is. Fun stuff.
Though not in the museum, I want to include one more artwork that we ran across while walking through downtown. It's in the outdoor sculpture garden, which unfortunately was closing just as we arrived. However I had time to snap this picture of a giant item that anyone much younger than I am will not be able to identify:
Typewriter Eraser, Scale X by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen, 1998-1999 |
I'm blown away by your detailed review of the paintings, etc. I don't even remember half of them. Good job.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those "so much to see, so little time" kinds of museums. Lots to love, but the typewriter eraser at the end is fabulous.
ReplyDelete