I’ve been meaning to write a post about this since last weekend, but just haven’t actually taken the time to do it. The Sunday after Valentine’s, Cris and I decided to spend the day downtown and get some lunch at Teaism. In an effort to knock something off the “do before we leave” we thought we would spend a little time at the National Portrait Gallery. We quickly realized that a little time was going to end up being all day.

If you’re not a museum person than you should probably stop reading and move on. If you enjoy going to museums and seeing historical works and hearing the stories behind the paintings or pictures then I definitely recommend visiting the NPG.

In the most basic terms the NPG, co-located with the Smithsonion American Art Museum, is a collection of mostly paintings and photographs by or of Americans or America. The most notable collection is that of the official portraits of all of the past presidents.

If you go to the NPG definitely take a docent tour.  We think our tour guide had to have been an art history major or something because his depth of knowledge about the people in the paintings, the painters, and the stories surrounding the paintings themselves was incredible.  Because it was President’s Day weekend he took us through the tour of all of the president’s portraits, and I probably learned more in that hour and a half than I did in some of my history or civics classes in school.

Notable things about our visit.  We got to see the portrait of George Washington that was used to create his picture on the one dollar bill. Interestingly, the portrait was never finished in 20 years, even though it was a commisioned work, because the artist was really happy with the likeness and made copies from it for $100 a piece to make money.  It was so valuable to him because he actually had the president sit for him which allowed the accurate likeness, and the chance of him sitting for another portrait was highly unlikely.

The portrait of Bill Clinton is bad.  Honestly, its really bad, and it appears that the Clintons are pretty unhappy with it now.  While we were standing the with the docent a lady in our group started pointing out all kinds of things that were wrong with it technically in terms of the perspective that didn’t match other elements of the painting.  On top of that, I think the painting makes him look much older than he is and much more haggard. It looks particularly bad in comparison to Bush’s portrait, which is placed next to Clinton’s, which is actually a really impressive painting.  Interesting note about Bush’s portrait is that it is the first presidential portrait the shows a wedding ring, if I remember correctly.

I should also note the historical significance of the building. If memory serves me right, it is the third oldest building in DC behind the White House and the capitol.  It was originally built as the national patent office, and the Declaration of Independence almost burned there in a fire.  It was also the site of President Lincoln’s second inaugural ball.

The last thing that I’d recommend to do while you’re there is to plan to stop and have a snack in the courtyard.  Any explanation I could give wouldn’t do it justice, but its just a very cool place to just sit and relax for a little while.

All in all a great visit.  Less crowded than many of the other museums you’ll vist in DC, but just as cool in terms of the stuff that you can see on your visit.