Page 105 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Washington, DC
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PENN QU AR TER 103
Exploring the National
Portrait Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery keeps generations of remarkable
Americans in the company of their fellow citizens. The
gallery’s mission is to collect and display images of “men
and women who have made significant contributions to the
history, development and culture of the people of the United
States.” Through the visual and performing arts, the lives of
leaders such as George Washington and Martin Luther King,
Jr., artists such as George Gershwin and Mary Cassatt, and
activists such as Rosa Parks and Sequoyah are celebrated.
country’s religious or cultural
Overview of the history. Athletes include the Ronald Reagan, an oil on canvas by
Collection famous baseball player Babe Henry C. Casselli, Jr. painted in 1989
The National Portrait Gallery Ruth and baseball manager
illuminates America’s family Casey Stengel. Among
album, magnificently figures from the world America’s Presidents
combining history, of entertain ment are In 1857, Congress commissioned
biography, and art portraits of actresses George Peter Alexander Healy
in its collections. Judy Garland, Tallulah to paint portraits of the
The portraits are Bankhead, and presidents. The chronologically
fascinating not only Mary Pickford. ordered portrayal of all of the
because they reveal John Wayne also country’s leaders remains
their subjects but features among the the heart of the National
also because they Hollywood stars, as Portrait Gallery’s exhibitions.
illus trate the times in do Buster Keaton, Two portraits of George
which they were Portrait of Pocahontas by Clark Gable, and and Martha Washington are
produced. There are an unidentified artist James Cagney. There featured prominently in the
more than 20,000 are also bronze busts Portrait Gallery. The most
images in the permanent of the poet T.S. Eliot and the famous portrait of George
collection, which includes humorist Will Rogers. Religious Washington is Gilbert Stuart’s
paintings, pho tographs, leaders, business magnates, “Landsdowne”, painted from
sculptures, etchings, and pioneers in women’s rights life in 1796. Abraham Lincoln
drawings. Both heroes and civil rights (such as Dr. posed for photo grapher
and villains are represented. Martin Luther King, Jr.), Alexander Gardener several
Portraits taken from life sittings explorers, and scientists are months before he was
are favored by the gallery. portrayed in a whole range assassinated (see p98).
of media, including oils, clay, The exhibition also features
and bronze. There are also modern-day presidents, such
The Great Hall many photographic portraits, as Bill Clinton and George W.
The third-floor Great Hall is a including some of Marilyn Bush. Shepard Fairey’s iconic
crazy quilt of tiles and ceiling Monroe, which were taken portrait of Barack Obama, an
medallions. A frieze showing during a morale-boosting visit image seen throughout the
the evolution of technology in the actress made to sold iers latter’s presidential campaign,
America also runs around the during the Korean War. is also here.
room. Once a display area for
new inventions, it is a reminder
of the building’s past as the
Patent Office.
20th-Century Americans
The National Portrait Gallery’s
collection is not limited to the
political history of the country.
There is also a large collection
of portraits of American people
notable for their achie vements
in the arts, sports, or in the Diana Ross and The Supremes, photographed by Bruce Davidson in 1965
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