The National Portrait Gallery is a historic
art museum
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. A ...
between 7th, 9th, F, and G Streets NW in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, in the United States. Founded in 1962 and opened to the public in 1968, it is part of the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
. Its collections focus on images of famous Americans. The museum is housed in the historic
Old Patent Office Building
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
* Old, Baranya, Hungary
* Old, Northamptonshire, England
*Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, ...
, as is the
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
.
History
Founding of the museum
The first portrait gallery in the United States was
Charles Willson Peale
Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American Painting, painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist. He is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolu ...
's "American Pantheon" (also known as "Peale's Collection of Portraits of American Patriots"), established in 1796. It closed after two years. In 1859, the
National Portrait Gallery in London opened, but few Americans took notice.
[Thompson, Bob. "Who Gets Into the National Portrait Gallery, and Why?" ''Washington Post.'' June 13, 1999.] The idea of a federally owned national portrait gallery can be traced back to 1886, when Robert C. Winthrope, president of the Massachusetts Historical Society, visited the National Portrait Gallery in London. Upon his return to the United States, Winthrope began pressing for the establishment of a similar museum in America.
In January 1919, the Smithsonian Institution entered into a cooperative endeavor with the
American Federation of Arts
The American Federation of Arts (AFA) is a nonprofit organization that creates art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops education programs. The organization’s founding in 1909 w ...
and the American Mission to Negotiate Peace to create a National Art Committee. The committee's goal was to commission portraits of famous leaders from the various nations involved in World War I. Among the committee's members were oil company executive
Herbert L. Pratt
Herbert Lee Pratt (November 21, 1871 – February 3, 1945) was an American businessman and a leading figure in the United States oil industry. In 1923, he became head of Standard Oil of New York; his father Charles Pratt was a founder of Astr ...
, Ethel Sperry Crocker (an art aficionado and wife of
William Henry Crocker
William Henry Crocker I (January 13, 1861 – September 25, 1937) was an American banker, the president of Crocker National Bank and a prominent member of the Republican Party.
Early life
Crocker was born on January 19, 1861 in Sacramento, Califor ...
, founder of
Crocker National Bank
Crocker National Bank was a United States bank headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was acquired by and merged into Wells Fargo Bank in 1986.
History
The bank traces its history to the Woolworth National Bank in San Francisco. Charles ...
), architect
Abram Garfield,
Mary Williamson Averell
Mary Williamson Averell Harriman (July 22, 1851 – November 7, 1932) was an American philanthropist and the wife of railroad executive E. H. Harriman. Born in New York to a successful family, Averell married Harriman in 1879. Averell's father i ...
(wife of railway executive
E. H. Harriman
Edward Henry Harriman (February 20, 1848 – September 9, 1909) was an American financier and railroad executive.
Early life
Harriman was born on February 20, 1848, in Hempstead, New York, the son of Orlando Harriman Sr., an Episcopal clergyman ...
), financier
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...
, attorney
Charles Phelps Taft
Charles Phelps Taft (December 21, 1843 – December 31, 1929) was an American lawyer and politician who served as editor of the ''Cincinnati Times-Star'' and owned both the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs baseball teams. From 1895 to 1897 ...
(brother of President
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
), steel magnate
Henry Clay Frick
Henry Clay Frick (December 19, 1849 – December 2, 1919) was an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, and played a maj ...
, and paleontologist
Charles Doolittle Walcott
Charles Doolittle Walcott (March 31, 1850February 9, 1927) was an American paleontologist, administrator of the Smithsonian Institution from 1907 to 1927, and director of the United States Geological Survey. Wonderful Life (book) by Stephen Jay G ...
.
The portraits commissioned went on display in the
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...
in May 1921. This formed the nucleus of what would become the National Portrait Gallery Collection.
![AWMellon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/AWMellon.jpg)
In 1937,
Andrew W. Mellon
Andrew William Mellon (; March 24, 1855 – August 26, 1937), sometimes A. W. Mellon, was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. From the wealthy Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylv ...
donated his large collection of classic and modernist art to the United States, which led to the foundation of the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
. The collection included a large number of portraits. Mellon asked that, should a portrait gallery be created, the portraits be transferred to it.
David E. Finley, Jr.
David Edward Finley Jr. (September 1, 1890 – February 1, 1977) was an American cultural leader during the middle third of the 20th century. He was the first director of the National Gallery of Art, the founding chairman of the National Trust ...
, an attorney and one of Mellon's closest friends, was named the first director of the National Gallery of Art, and he pushed hard over the next several years for the establishment of a portrait gallery.
In 1957, a proposal was made by the federal government to demolish the Old Patent Office Building. After a public outcry and an agreement to save the historic structure, Congress authorized the Smithsonian Institution to use the structure as a museum in March 1958. Shortly thereafter, the Smithsonian Art Commission asked the Chancellor of the Smithsonian to appoint a committee to organize a national portrait museum and to plan for the establishment of this museum in the Old Patent Office Building. This committee was created in 1960.
The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) was authorized and founded by Congress in 1962.
[Schultz, p. 272.] The enabling legislation defined its purpose as displaying portraits of "men and women who have made significant contributions to the history, development, and culture of the people of the United States."
The legislation specified, however, that the museum's collection be limited to painting, prints, drawings, and engravings.
Despite the Smithsonian's own extensive collection of art and Mellon's collection, there was very little for the National Portrait Gallery to display. "To found a portrait gallery in the 1960s," Smithsonian Secretary
S. Dillon Ripley
S is the nineteenth letter of the English alphabet.
S may also refer to:
History
* an Anglo-Saxon charter's number in Peter Sawyer's, catalogue Language and linguistics
* Long s (ſ), a form of the lower-case letter s formerly used where "s ...
said, was difficult because "American portraiture has already reached the zenith in price and the nadir in supply."
Ripley, whose leadership of the Smithsonian began in 1964, was a strong supporter of the new museum, however. He encouraged the museum's curators to build a collection from scratch based on individual pieces chosen through high-quality scholarship rather than buying complete collections from others. The NPG's collection was slowly built over the next five years through donations and purchases. The museum had little money at this time. Often, it located items it wanted and then asked the owner to simply donate it.
The first NPG exhibit, "Nucleus for a National Collection," went on display in the
Arts and Industries Building in 1965 (the bicentennial of
James Smithson's birth). The following year, the NPG completed the Catalog of American Portraits, the first inventory of portraiture held by the Smithsonian. The catalog also documented the physical characteristics of each artwork, and its provenance (author, date, ownership, etc.).
The museum moved into the Old Patent Office Building with the National Fine Arts Collection in 1966. It opened to the public on October 7, 1968.
Building the collection
The Old Patent Office Building was renovated in 1969 by the architectural firm of Faulkner, Fryer and Vanderpool. The renovation won the American Institute of Architects National Honor Award in 1970. The following year, the NPG began the National Portrait Survey, an attempt to catalog and photograph all portraits in all formats held by every public and private collection and museum in the country. On July 4, 1973, the NPG opened "The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, 1770–1800," the first exhibit at the museum dedicated solely to African Americans.
Philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
Paul Mellon donated 761 portraits by French-American engraver
C.B.J.F. de Saint-Mémin to the museum in 1974.
Congress passed legislation in January 1976 allowing the National Portrait Gallery to collect portraits in media other than
graphic arts
A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i.e. produced on a flat surface. .
[Richard, Paul. "A New Face for the Stuffy Old Portrait." ''Washington Post.'' April 3, 1977.] This permitted the NPG to begin collecting photographs. The
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
had long opposed the move in order to protect its own role in collecting photographs, but NPG Director Marvin Sadik fought hard to have the ban eliminated.
The NPG rapidly expanded its photography collection, and in October 1976 established a Department of Photographs. The gallery's first photography exhibit, "Facing the Light: Historic American Portrait Daguerreotypes," opened in September 1978.
It also continued to build its other collections. In February 1977, the museum acquired an 1880 self-portrait by
Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt (; May 22, 1844June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh's North Side), but lived much of her adult life in France, where she befriended Edgar De ...
, one of only two painted by her.
Eleven months later, the museum acquired a self-portrait by
John Singleton Copley. The roundel (a circular canvas), one of only four self-portraits by the celebrated early American artist, was donated to the NPG by the
Cafritz Foundation.
[Richard, Paul. "American Masterwork: Portrait Gallery's New 'Cornerstone' A Copley Self-Portrait for the Portrait Gallery." ''Washington Post.'' January 16, 1978.]
In May 1978, ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine donated 850 original portraits which had graced its cover between 1928 and 1978. A major exhibit of these pieces debuted in May 1979.
The Stuarts controversy
A major controversy occurred in 1979 over the National Portrait Gallery's attempt to buy two
Gilbert Stuart
Gilbert Charles Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-known work is an unfinished portrait of George Washi ...
paintings. The famous, unfinished portraits of
George
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...
and
Martha Washington
Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 21, 1731 — May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington served as the inaugural ...
were owned by the
Boston Athenaeum
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most ...
, which loaned them to the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
in 1876. But the Athenaeum, a private collection, was suffering from financial difficulties by the late 1970s. It twice offered to sell the two portraits to the Museum of Fine Arts over the previous two years, but the museum declined to purchase them. The Athenaeum began searching for another buyer, and in early 1979 the Athenaeum tentatively reached an agreement to sell the works to the NPG for $5 million. When the Athenaeum made these discussions public in April 1979, there was strong public opposition to the sale in Boston. NPG director Marvin Sadik declined to cancel the sale, arguing that the portraits were of national historic value and belonged in the Smithsonian. A campaign by prominent Bostonians tried to raise $5 million to keep the portraits in Massachusetts.
Boston Mayor
The mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston has a mayor–council government. Boston's mayoral elections are nonpartisan (as are all municipal elections in Boston), and elect a mayor to a four-y ...
Kevin H. White sued to keep the portraits in Boston, naming
Massachusetts Attorney General
The Massachusetts Attorney General is an elected constitutionally defined executive officer of the Massachusetts Government. The officeholder is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The officeholder ...
Francis X. Bellotti (which office the Commonwealth's constitution designates "custodian of public property") in the suit. "Everybody knows Washington has no culture—they have to buy it," White said.
On April 12, the Athenaeum and NPG agreed to delay the sale until December 31, 1979, to give the Boston fund-raising effort a chance.
["Bostonians Are Falling Short in Drive to Keep Art." ''Associated Press.'' November 25, 1979.] Although not completely successful, the lawsuit had one effect: Attorney General Bellotti announced in mid-summer that the Stuart portraits could not be sold without his permission.
By November 1979, the fund-raising campaign had netted only $885,631, with a pledge from the Museum of Fine Arts to match the amount if necessary.
This left the campaign $4 million short of the purchase price. The Athenaeum refused to lower the price, describing the $5 million listing as a significant discount from the portraits' real value.
With public and political pressure on the Smithsonian to resolve the issue, the Museum of Fine Arts and NPG agreed on February 7, 1980, to jointly purchase the portraits. Under the agreement, the paintings would spend three years at the National Portrait Gallery (beginning in July 1980), and then three years in Boston at the Museum of Fine Arts. Attorney General Bellotti approved the plan in March.
["Pact on Stuarts Approved By Massachusetts Official." ''Associated Press.'' March 22, 1980; "Stuart Portraits Plan Wins Tentative Approval." ''Washington Post.'' March 24, 1980.] Per the agreement, the portraits went on display in Washington on July 1, 1980.
NPG director Marvin Sadik, who had expressed his dissatisfaction over the Stuart painting controversy, took a six-month-long sabbatical in January 1981. He announced his retirement from the museum in July.
Expanding the collection
Even as the Stuarts controversy occupied the attention of the press, the National Portrait Gallery continued to expand its collection. In April 1979, it obtained five other portraits by Gilbert Stuart. These five paintings — of presidents George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
,
James Monroe
James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...
,
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
, and
James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
— were known as the Gibbs-Coolidge set. The portraits were donated by the Coolidge family of Boston (without controversy).
[Glueck, Grace. "5 Stuarts Go to U.S. Gallery." ''Washington Post.'' April 10, 1979.] In December, the museum obtained a bust of
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
by
John Trumbull (which may have been sculpted from the portrait which was later used for the $10 bill) and a Gilbert Stuart portrait of
Representative
Representative may refer to:
Politics
* Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a group of people
* House of Representatives, legislative body in various countries or sub-national entities
* Legislator, som ...
Fisher Ames
Fisher Ames (; April 9, 1758 – July 4, 1808) was a Representative in the United States Congress from the 1st Congressional District of Massachusetts. He was an important leader of the Federalist Party in the House, and was noted for his ...
from the
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850 November 9, 1924) was an American Republican politician, historian, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served in the United States Senate from 1893 to 1924 and is best known for his positions on foreign policy. ...
family in Massachusetts.
[Richard, Paul. "Lodge Donates Two Portraits." ''Washington Post.'' December 15, 1979.] The following April, Varina Webb Stewart and Joel A.H. Webb presented important portraits of
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...
and his wife,
Varina Howell Davis, to the National Portrait Gallery. (Stewart and Webb were the Davis' great-grandchildren.)
In 1980, the museum obtained (through purchase and loan) a number of works by graphic artist
Howard Chandler Christy
Howard Chandler Christy (January 10, 1872 – March 3, 1952) was an American artist and illustrator. Famous for the "Christy Girl" – a colorful and illustrious successor to the "Gibson Girl" – Christy is also widely known for his ico ...
for exhibit. Works displayed ranged from his "Christy girl" recruiting posters to history-based works such as ''
Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States
''Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States'' is a 1940 oil-on-canvas painting by Howard Chandler Christy, depicting the Constitutional Convention signing the U.S. Constitution at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on Sep ...
''.
[Kernan, Michael. "GEE!! It's Christy." ''Washington Post.'' January 11, 1980; "The Loving Eye That Created the Christy Girl." ''Washington Post.'' January 11, 1980.]
![Lincoln O-118 by Garnder, 1865](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Lincoln_O-118_by_Garnder%2C_1865.jpg)
By 1981, the museum had more than 2,000 items in its collection.
Two major 19th-century photography collections were added by the museum that year. The first such acquisition was the Frederick Hill Meserve Collection of 5,419 glass negatives produced by the studio of famed Civil War photograph
Mathew Brady
Mathew B. Brady ( – January 15, 1896) was one of the earliest photographers in American history. Best known for his scenes of the American Civil War, Civil War, he studied under inventor Samuel Morse, who pioneered the daguerreotype technique ...
and his assistants.
[Ostrow, Joanne. "The Meserves' Photo Legacy." ''Washington Post.'' May 14, 1982.] Using historically accurate chemicals, paper, and techniques, prints were made of the negatives and the prints placed on rotating display. The ''Washington Post'' later described the importance of the acquisition by saying it made the NPG the "epicenter" for Brady scholarship. Later that year, 5,400 Civil War-era glass negatives produced by photographer
Alexander Gardner were also purchased from the Meserve family. This included the famous "cracked-plate" portrait of
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
taken in February 1865, which was the last photographic portrait of Lincoln taken before his death in April 1865.
Two major portrait purchases were also made in the early 1980s. One was a Gilbert Stuart portrait of Thomas Jefferson, for which the museum paid $1 million to a private collector. A portion of the purchase price came from the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Jefferson's historic plantation home of
Monticello
Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...
. The two parties agreed have the portrait spend time at both locations.
[Richard, Paul. "Gilbert Stuart's Jefferson Acquired for $1 Million." ''Washington Post.'' September 10, 1982.] The second major purchase was an
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...
portrait of his friend, Mary Cassatt, for which the museum paid $1.3 million.
[Richard, Paul. "Portrait Gallery Buys Degas." ''Washington Post.'' May 22, 1984.]
The museum suffered a major theft in 1984 — although it was not a portrait. On December 31, 1984, a thief pried open a display case and stole four handwritten documents accompanying several portraits of Civil War generals. One of the documents was written and signed by President Abraham Lincoln. The remaining three were written and signed by Civil War generals
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...
,
George Meade
George Gordon Meade (December 31, 1815 – November 6, 1872) was a United States Army officer and civil engineer best known for decisively defeating Confederate States Army, Confederate Full General (CSA), General Robert E. Lee at the Battle ...
, and
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars.
Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...
. The
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
was contacted and worked with Smithsonian police to investigate the crime. Within two weeks, a historic documents dealer contacted the FBI and said he had been offered the documents for sale. On February 8, 1985, police arrested Norman James Chandler, a part-time mechanic's assistant from Maryland, for the theft. Chandler quickly pleaded guilty. He was sentenced in April 1985 to two years in jail (with all but six months suspended) and two years of probation, and required to pay a $2,000 fine. All four documents were recovered.
The late 1980s saw the collection continue to expand, although there were fewer major additions. One significant acquisition was a nude image — a self-portrait painting by Alice Neel acquired in 1985. It was the National Portrait Gallery's first nude work. Neel was 80 years old when she painted it.
Two years later, noted photographer
Irving Penn
Irving Penn (June 16, 1917October 7, 2009) was an American photographer known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn's career included work at ''Vogue'' magazine, and independent advertising work for clients including Is ...
donated 120 platinum prints of fashion and celebrity portraits he produced over the past 50 years.
[Grundberg, Andy. "The Beautiful Peoples." ''Washington Post.'' June 19, 2005.]
Two very important
daguerreotype
Daguerreotype (; french: daguerréotype) was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process.
Invented by Louis Daguerre an ...
s (an early photographic process) were purchased in the 1990s. The first was of African American
abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
and former slave
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...
, acquired in 1990. It is one of only four daguerreotypes of Douglass known to exist. That year, the number of images in the museum's photography collection reached 8,500 objects.
["Daguerreotype of Frederick Douglass." ''Washington Post.'' December 23, 1990.] Six years later, the NPG obtained for $115,000 the earliest known daguerreotype of abolitionist
John Brown, whose
1859 raid on Harpers Ferry helped to spark the Civil War. The portrait was created by African American photographer
Augustus Washington
Augustus Washington ( – June 7, 1875) was an American photographer and daguerreotypist. He was born in New Jersey as a free person of color and migrated to Liberia in 1852. He is one of the few African-American daguerreotypists whose career has b ...
.
[Ringle, Ken. "John Brown, Captured For History." ''Washington Post.'' December 19, 1996.]
Purchasing the Lansdowne portrait
In the fall of 2000,
Neil Primrose, 7th Earl of Rosebery
Neil Archibald Primrose, 7th Earl of Rosebery, 3rd Earl of Midlothian (born 11 February 1929), styled Lord Primrose between 1931 and 1974, is a Scottish nobleman. He was a member of the House of Lords from 1974 to 1999. His son and heir is Harry ...
, offered to sell Gilbert Stuart's
Lansdowne portrait
The Lansdowne portrait is an iconic life-size portrait of George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1796. It depicts the 64-year-old President of the United States during his final year in office. The portrait was a gift to former British Pri ...
of George Washington to the National Portrait Gallery. The painting was commissioned in April 1796 by
Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
William Bingham
William Bingham (March 8, 1752February 7, 1804) was an American statesman from Philadelphia. He was a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress from 1786 to 1788 and served in the United States Senate from 1795 to 1801. Bingham was o ...
of
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
—one of the wealthiest men in America at the time. The portrait was given as a gift to
British Prime Minister
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As moder ...
William Petty FitzMaurice. FitzMaurice was the 2nd Earl of Shelburne, and later became the first
Marquess of Lansdowne
Marquess of Lansdowne is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1784, and held by the head of the Petty-Fitzmaurice family. The first Marquess served as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Origins
This branch of the Fitzmaurice famil ...
(hence the name of the portrait). Lansdowne died in 1805, and in 1890 the painting was purchased by the 5th Earl of Rosebery. The Lansdowne portrait was displayed only three times in the United States (although several copies remained in America). On its third trip in 1968, it was exhibited by the National Portrait Gallery, and it remained there on indefinite loan. Lord Rosebery offered to sell the painting for $20 million, a price at the low end of estimates. But the offer came with a deadline of April 1, 2001. A search for a donor, personally led by Smithsonian Secretary
Lawrence Small and the Smithsonian's Board of Regents, proved fruitless after three months. Worried Smithsonian officials then went public in February 2001 with a plea for a donor to come forth.
On March 13, just two weeks before the sale deadline, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation donated $30 million to buy the Lansdowne portrait. Foundation chairman
Fred W. Smith read about failing donor effort in the ''
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' on February 26. Although the Reynolds Foundation generally only made grants in the areas of elder care, cardiovascular research, and journalism, assisting with the Lansdowne purchase fell within the foundation's "special projects" area of responsibility. NPG Director
Marc Pachter flew to
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
to meet with foundation officials on March 3, and the foundation approved the donation the following day. The $30 million donation included $6 million to put the portrait on a national tour for three years (the NPG was closed for renovations until 2006), and $4 million to construct a new area in the Old Patent Office Building to display it. NPG said it would name this display area for
Donald W. Reynolds, the media baron who created the foundation.
Post-renovation activities
The National Portrait Gallery closed in January 2000 for a renovation of the Old Patent Office Building. Intended to take two years and cost $42 million, the renovation took seven years and cost $283 million. Inflation, delays in obtaining approval for the renovation design, the addition of a glass canopy over the open courtyard, and other issues led to increases in both time and costs. During this period, most of the NPG's collection went on tour around the United States.
In March 2007, a multi-year study of leadership at eight Smithsonian museums made recommendations about the National Portrait Gallery. The report concluded that the museum needed stronger, more visionary leadership intent on creating a truly national museum. The report also called for "administrative consolidation" of the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
After the 2008 presidential election, the National Portrait Gallery obtained graphic artist
Shepard Fairey
Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989 he designed the " Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker cam ...
's ubiquitous "Hope" poster of Barack Obama. Obama supporter
Tony Podesta
Anthony Thomas Podesta (born October 24, 1943) is an American lobbyist best known for founding the Podesta Group. The brother of former White House Chief of staff John Podesta, he was formerly one of Washington's most powerful lobbyists and fundr ...
and his wife, Heather, donated it to the museum.
[Argetsinger, Amy and Roberts, Roxanne. "Fit for a T: New at the Portrait Gallery." ''Washington Post.'' January 7, 2009.]
Hide/Seek controversy
In November 2010, the National Portrait Gallery hosted a major new exhibit, "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture", curated by
David C. Ward
David C. Ward is an American historian, published poet and author, and civil servant. He served at the National Portrait Gallery as senior historian.
Early life
Ward studied under Christopher Lasch and Eugene Genovese at University of Rocheste ...
and Jonathan Katz. The exhibit focused on depictions of homosexual love through history, and was the first exhibit hosted by a museum of national stature to address the topic. It was also the largest and most expensive exhibit in the NPG's history, and more private donors contributed to it than to any prior NPG exhibit.
Included in the 105 pieces in the exhibit was a four-minute, edited version of artist
David Wojnarowicz
David Michael Wojnarowicz ( (September 14, 1954 – July 22, 1992) was an American painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, songwriter/recording artist, and AIDS activist prominent in the East Village art scene. He incorp ...
's short silent film ''A Fire in My Belly''. Eleven seconds of the video depicted a
crucifix
A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...
covered in ants.
[Trescott, Jacqueline. "Portrait Gallery Removes Crucifix Video From Exhibit After Complaints." ''Washington Post.'' December 1, 2010.]
The exhibit was scheduled to run from October 30, 2010, to February 13, 2011. Within days of its opening,
Catholic League president
William A. Donohue labeled ''A Fire in My Belly'' hate speech, anti-Catholic, and anti-Christian. A spokesperson for Representative
John Boehner, incoming
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, commonly known as the speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the U. ...
, called it an "arrogant" abuse of the public trust and a misuse of taxpayer money, although it was funded by private donations.
House Majority Leader
Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives, also known as floor leaders, are congresspeople who coordinate legislative initiatives and serve as the chief spokespersons for their parties on the House floor. These leaders are ele ...
Representative
Eric Cantor
Eric Ivan Cantor (born June 6, 1963) is an American lawyer and former politician who represented Virginia's 7th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2014. A Republican, Cantor served as House Minori ...
threatened to reduce the Smithsonian's budget if the film remained on view. After consulting with National Portrait Gallery director Martin Sullivan, co-curator
David C. Ward (but not with co-curator
Jonathan David Katz
Jonathan David Katz (born 1958) is an American activist, art historian, educator and writer. He is currently Associate Professor of Practice in Art History and Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
Biography ...
), Smithsonian Undersecretary Richard Kurin, and the Smithsonian's government affairs and public relations offices, Smithsonian Secretary
G. Wayne Clough
Gerald Wayne Clough (born September 24, 1941) is President Emeritus of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and former Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. A graduate of Georgia Tech in civil engineering, he was the first alum ...
ordered ''A Fire in My Belly'' removed from the exhibit on November 30.
Clough's decision led to extensive accusations of censorship and claims that the Smithsonian was caving in to pressure from a small group of vocal activists. Smithsonian officials strongly defended the video's removal. "The decision wasn't caving in," said Sullivan. "We don't want to shy away from anything that is controversial, but we want to focus on the museum's and this show's strengths."
Kurin expressed the Smithsonian's desire to be responsive to public opinion, but also emphasized the remaining exhibit's importance. "We are sensitive to what the public thinks about our shows and programs," he said. "We stand behind the show. It has strong scholarship with great pieces by artists who are recognized by a whole panoply of experts. It represents a segment of America."
On December 13, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, one of the principal sponsors of the exhibit, said it would ask for its $100,000 donation back if the film was not restored. Clough replied, "...the Smithsonian's decision to remove the video was a difficult one and we stand by it." The donation was returned, and the Warhol Foundation ceased to support National Portrait Gallery exhibits. The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, which donated $10,000 to support the exhibit, also ended all funding for future Smithsonian exhibitions. Both decisions drew criticism from some gay rights supporters, who felt the funding cuts were too draconian in view of the fact that the remainder of the pieces continued to be exhibited.
The controversy lasted through the exhibit's scheduled run. In late January 2011, the Smithsonian Board of Regents unanimously gave Clough a vote of confidence, saying his accomplishments in improving the Smithsonian's administration, finances, governance, and maintenance in the past 19 months far outweighed the damage done by the "Hide/Seek" controversy. Clough admitted, however, that he may have acted too hastily in the matter (although he continued to say he made the right decision), and the regents asked for Smithsonian staff to study the controversy and report back on how to handle such events in the future. Not everyone in the Smithsonian agreed with the regents. The ''Washington Post'' reported that some (unnamed) Smithsonian museum directors and curators felt there would be a
chilling effect
In a legal context, a chilling effect is the inhibition or discouragement of the legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights by the threat of legal sanction. A chilling effect may be caused by legal actions such as the passing of a law, the ...
from Clough's decision. The Board of Directors of the
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was desig ...
wrote an
open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.
Open letters usually take the form of a letter addressed to an indiv ...
to Clough in which they said they were "deeply troubled by the precedent" to remove the film.
Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition
In 2006, the museum began hosting a triennial, juried contemporary portrait exhibition called the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Named after long time docent and volunteer Virginia Outwin Boochever, this competition is widely regarded as the most prestigious
portrait
A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...
competition in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Artists working in the fields of
painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
,
drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...
,
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
,
photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...
, and other media are allowed to enter. Works must be created through a face-to-face encounter with the subject.
The inaugural competition in 2006 drew more than 4000 entries, from which 51 finalists were chosen. For the 2013 competition the total prize money of $42,000 was awarded to the top eight commended artists, and the winner received $25,000 and a commission to make a portrait for the museum's permanent collection. The subject of the commission is decided jointly by the artist and the NPG curators. The 2006 winner was
David Lenz of
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
, Wisconsin, and he was commissioned to paint a portrait of
Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver (July 10, 1921 – August 11, 2009) was an American philanthropist and a member of the Kennedy family. She was the founder of the Special Olympics, a sports organization for persons with physical and intellectual disa ...
, the founder of
Special Olympics
Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in ...
. It was the first portrait commissioned of an individual who has not served as a
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
or
first lady
First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...
. The 2009 winner, Dave Woody of Fort Collins, Colorado, was commissioned to photograph food pioneer
Alice Waters
Alice Louise Waters (born April 28, 1944) is an American chef, restaurateur, and author. In 1971 she opened Chez Panisse, a Berkeley, California restaurant famous for its role in creating the farm-to-table movement and for pioneering Californi ...
, founder of the Chez Panisse Restaurant and Cafe, the
Edible Schoolyard
The Edible Schoolyard (ESY) is a garden and kitchen program at the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, a public middle school in Berkeley, California. The Edible Schoolyard was established in 1995 by chef and author Alice Waters and is supporte ...
and champion of the
Slow Food
Slow Food is an organization that promotes local food and traditional cooking. It was founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy in 1986 and has since spread worldwide. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and re ...
movement. The 2013 winner was Bo Gehring of Beacon, New York, who was commissioned to direct a video portrait of jazz musician
Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza Emily Spalding (born October 18, 1984) is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Award, and a Soul Train Music Award.
A native of Portland, Oregon, Spalding be ...
.
Post-2010 exhibits of note
In 2012, the National Portrait Gallery sponsored a new temporary exhibit, "Poetic Likeness: Modern American Poets," which focused on images of great American poets. The NPG collection had grown so large that the exhibit drew its images almost entirely from the museum's own collection.
Collection
![Gibbs-Coolidge Collection - 1817 to 1821 - by Gilbert Stuart - National Gallery of Art, Washington DC](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Gibbs-Coolidge_Collection_-_1817_to_1821_-_by_Gilbert_Stuart_-_National_Gallery_of_Art%2C_Washington_DC.jpg)
As of 2011, the National Portrait Gallery was the only museum in the United States dedicated solely to portraiture.
The museum had 65 employees and a $9 million annual budget in 2013. By February 2013, it housed 21,200 works of art, which had been seen by 1,069,932 visitors in 2012.
Portrait addition procedure
By 1977, the National Portrait Gallery had three curatorial divisions: Painting and sculpture, prints and drawings, and photography.
Initially, the National Portrait Gallery had fairly strict rules regarding which images could enter its collection. The person depicted had to be historically significant. An individual also needed to be dead at least 10 years before their portrait could be displayed (although some images of obviously important living people were acquired while they still lived). After an initial affirmative determination by curators at a monthly curatorial meeting, the National Portrait Gallery Commission (the museum's board of directors) approved the person's inclusion. The commission was initially quite conservative in its assessment of "historically significant," although this position began to be more relaxed by 1969.
As of 2006, the definition of "historically significant" had become quite loose, although "some kind of fame or notoriety remains a prerequisite". Portraits of living individuals or those dead less than 10 years are also now allowed to be displayed in the museum, as long as their inclusion is clearly important (such as presidents or generals).
[Thompson, Bob. "The Changing Face of American Portraiture." ''Washington Post.'' June 25, 2006.][Trescott, Jacqueline. "Museums Reopen to a Brand-New View." ''Washington Post.'' July 1, 2006.]
The process for choosing which images the museum acquires is simple but can be contentious. Potential acquisitions are vigorously and informally discussed at length by researchers, historians, and the curatorial departments. Some of the criteria used in the decision-making process are: The number of existing portraits of the individual already in the collection, the quality of the potential portrait, the uniqueness of the potential portrait, the reputation of the portrait's author, and the cost of the portrait. Formal decisions to acquire a portrait are made at monthly curatorial meetings, then ratified by the National Portrait Gallery Commission.
Key exhibits and programs of the museum
![Motto frederick douglass 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Frederick_Douglass_ambrotype_%281856%29.jpg)
A hallmark of the National Portrait Gallery's permanent collection is the Hall of Presidents, which contains portraits of nearly all American presidents. It is the largest and most complete collection in the world, except for the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
collection itself.
[Copeland, Libby. "The Clintons: They've Been Framed!" ''Washington Post.'' April 25, 2006.] The centerpiece of the Hall of Presidents is the famous
Lansdowne portrait
The Lansdowne portrait is an iconic life-size portrait of George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1796. It depicts the 64-year-old President of the United States during his final year in office. The portrait was a gift to former British Pri ...
of George Washington. How the museum obtains presidential images has changed over the years. Presidential portraits from 1962 to 1987 were usually obtained through purchase or donation. Beginning in 1998, NPG began commissioning portraits of presidents, starting with
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
. In 2000, NPG began commissioning portraits of First Ladies as well, beginning with
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
. Funds for these commissions are privately raised, and each portrait costs about $150,000 to $200,000.
The museum's more notable art pieces include:
*"
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
" (glass plate, cracked; 1865) by
Alexander Gardner
*"
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
" (bust, 1789) by
John Trumbull
*"
Beauford Delaney
Beauford Delaney (December 30, 1901 – March 26, 1979) was an American modernist painter. He is remembered for his work with the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as his later works in abstract expressionism following his mo ...
" (1940) by
Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Ame ...
*"
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
" (c. 1785) by
Joseph Duplessis
Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (22 September 1725 – 1 April 1802) was a French painter known for the clarity and immediacy of his portraits.
Early life
He was born in Carpentras, near Avignon, into a family with an artistic bent and received his ...
*"
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
" (1925) by
Edward Steichen
Edward Jean Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter, and curator, renowned as one of the most prolific and influential figures in the history of photography.
Steichen was credited with tr ...
*"
Colin Powell" (2012) by Ron Sherr
*"
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
" (photo, 1989) by
Michael O'Brien
*"
Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an American singer and actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts. She began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her no ...
" (1940) by
Beauford Delaney
Beauford Delaney (December 30, 1901 – March 26, 1979) was an American modernist painter. He is remembered for his work with the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as his later works in abstract expressionism following his mo ...
*"
Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver (July 10, 1921 – August 11, 2009) was an American philanthropist and a member of the Kennedy family. She was the founder of the Special Olympics, a sports organization for persons with physical and intellectual disa ...
" (2009) by
David Lenz
*"
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...
" (daguerreotype, 1856) by unknown artist
*"
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
" (unfinished, 1796) by
Gilbert Stuart
Gilbert Charles Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-known work is an unfinished portrait of George Washi ...
*"
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850 November 9, 1924) was an American Republican politician, historian, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served in the United States Senate from 1893 to 1924 and is best known for his positions on foreign policy. ...
" (1890) by
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...
*"
Hope" (Barack Obama) (2008) by
Shepard Fairey
Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989 he designed the " Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker cam ...
*"
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...
" (1849) by
George Lethbridge Saunders
*"
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
" (1800–1815) by
Gilbert Stuart
Gilbert Charles Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-known work is an unfinished portrait of George Washi ...
*"
John Brown" (daguerreotype, 1846–1847) by
Augustus Washington
Augustus Washington ( – June 7, 1875) was an American photographer and daguerreotypist. He was born in New Jersey as a free person of color and migrated to Liberia in 1852. He is one of the few African-American daguerreotypists whose career has b ...
*
Lansdowne portrait (George Washington) (1796) by Gilbert Stuart
*"
Martha Washington
Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 21, 1731 — May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington served as the inaugural ...
" (unfinished, 1796) by Gilbert Stuart
*"
Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt (; May 22, 1844June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh's North Side), but lived much of her adult life in France, where she befriended Edgar De ...
" (1880–1884) by
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...
*"
Osceola
Osceola (1804 – January 30, 1838, Asi-yahola in Muscogee language, Creek), named Billy Powell at birth in Alabama, became an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfather was a S ...
" (1804–1838) by
George Catlin
George Catlin (July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American adventurer, lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the Old West.
Traveling to the We ...
*"Self-Portrait" (1880) by
Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt (; May 22, 1844June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh's North Side), but lived much of her adult life in France, where she befriended Edgar De ...
*"Self-Portrait" (1880–1881) by
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...
*"Self-Portrait" (1780–1784) by
John Singleton Copley
*"
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
" (1805) by Gilbert Stuart
*"
Varina Howell Davis" (1849) by
John Wood Dodge
*"
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
" (2018) by
Kehinde Wiley
Kehinde Wiley (born February 28, 1977) he returned to Nigeria, leaving Freddie to raise the couple's six children. 3/sup> Wiley has said that his family survived on welfare checks and the limited income earned by his mother's 'thrift store' – ...
Among the museum's more prominent collections are:
*
Alexander Gardner (photography)
*
Howard Chandler Christy
Howard Chandler Christy (January 10, 1872 – March 3, 1952) was an American artist and illustrator. Famous for the "Christy Girl" – a colorful and illustrious successor to the "Gibson Girl" – Christy is also widely known for his ico ...
(graphic arts)
*
Irving Penn
Irving Penn (June 16, 1917October 7, 2009) was an American photographer known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn's career included work at ''Vogue'' magazine, and independent advertising work for clients including Is ...
(photography)
*
Mathew Brady
Mathew B. Brady ( – January 15, 1896) was one of the earliest photographers in American history. Best known for his scenes of the American Civil War, Civil War, he studied under inventor Samuel Morse, who pioneered the daguerreotype technique ...
(photography)
*
''Time'' magazine covers (graphic arts)
Building
![National Portrait Gallery courtyard DC1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/National_Portrait_Gallery_courtyard_DC1.jpg)
The National Portrait Gallery occupies a portion of the Old Patent Office Building, a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
. The building is located just south of
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
in downtown Washington. Constructed between 1836 and 1867, the building has a
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
and
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...
façade, and
portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
es modeled after the
Parthenon
The Parthenon (; grc, Παρθενών, , ; ell, Παρθενώνας, , ) is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are considere ...
.
The building was used as a hospital during the American Civil War, and both
Clara Barton and
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...
worked as nurses there. The
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...
, the
General Land Office
The General Land Office (GLO) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department o ...
, and the
Bureau of Pensions The Bureau of Pensions was an agency of the federal government of the United States which existed from 1832 to 1930. It originally administered pensions solely for military personnel. Pension duties were transferred to the United States Department o ...
jointly occupied the building with the Patent Office through the Civil War and into the post-war period. The massive increase in pension processing required by the Civil War led to the construction of a new
Pension Bureau Building into which the Bureau of Pensions moved in 1887. The General Land Office and the Bureau of Indian Affairs vacated the building in 1898. The
United States Civil Service Commission
The United States Civil Service Commission was a government agency of the federal government of the United States and was created to select employees of federal government on merit rather than relationships. In 1979, it was dissolved as part of t ...
and the
Government Accounting Office
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal gover ...
occupied the building after the Patent Office vacated it in 1932. The Government Accounting Office vacated the structure in 1942, after its new headquarters nearby was complete. The Civil Service Commission began constructing its own headquarters, and planned to vacate the building in 1962.
Local D.C. businessmen asked the General Services Administration (GSA) to tear down the building and sell the land so a private parking garage could be built on the centrally located site. Legislation for this purpose was introduced in Congress in the waning days of the
82nd United States Congress in 1952, but did not pass. The legislation encountered resistance from a few members of Congress, architects, and the influential
Committee of 100 on the Federal City
The Committee of 100 on the Federal City, locally referred to as the Committee of 100, is a private, nonprofit membership organization which promotes responsible land use and planning in Washington, D.C., and advocates adherence to the L'Enfant P ...
(a non-profit advocate for responsible planning and land use). GSA reversed course and said in June 1956 it no longer wanted to demolish the building. However, the agency said it would continue to use it for federal office space (which was in short supply) until the Civil Service Commission vacated the structure. On March 21, 1958, Congress unanimously passed legislation authorizing the transfer of the building to the Smithsonian for a national art museum. President
Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
signed the legislation a few days later.
Congress passed legislation establishing the National Portrait Gallery in 1962, and the Civil Service Commission moved out of the structure in November 1963. Preparations for the renovation began in November 1964, and the Grunley, Walsh Construction Co. began demolition of non-historic interior structures by May 1965. The $6 million renovation was complete by April 1968, and the National Portrait Gallery opened on October 7.
2000 to 2007 renovation
In 1995, the Smithsonian revealed that the Old Patent Office Building was in serious disrepair. The Smithsonian announced in January 1997 that the building would close in January 2000 for a two-year, $42 million renovation. Hartman-Cox Architects was hired to oversee the conservation and repair. But just three years later, as the renovation was about to begin, the cost of repairs had risen to $110 million to $120 million.
Prior to the building's closure in January 2000, a decision was reached to allot about one-third of the building's total space to the National Portrait Gallery while simultaneously eliminating the informal north–south division between the NPG and American Art Museum. This led to acrimony between the two museums, and a public debate about which collection deserved more space. The Smithsonian resolved the dispute practically: Art that best fit an exhibition space got it. (For example, since modern art often tends toward large canvases, this art is on the high-ceilinged third floor.)
The cost of the renovation rose to $180 million by March 2001. That month, Nan Tucker McEvoy (a
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
newspaper heiress and arts patron) donated $10 million for the renovation. The Henry Luce Foundation gave another $10 million later that year.
[Trescott, Jacqueline. "Old Patent Office Gets A $25 Million Boost." ''Washington Post.'' November 16, 2004.] Costs continued to rise. Although Congress appropriated $33.5 million for the renovation, reconstruction costs were estimated at $214 million in June 2001 and the museum not scheduled to reopen until 2005. Just a month later, the reopening was pushed back even further to July 2006.
In 2003, the government increased its contribution to $166 million. Smithsonian officials subsequently began discussing a major change to the renovation design: Adding a glass roof to the open courtyard in the center of the Old Patent Office Building. Congress approved the change in August 2003. In March 2004, the Smithsonian announced that architect
Norman Foster
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Nor ...
, would design the glass canopy. In November, Robert Kogod (a real estate development executive) and his wife, Arlene (heiress to Charles E. Smith Construction fortune) donated $25 million to complete the canopy. By then, costs had risen to $298 million. $60 million in private funds still needed to be raised.
Today, the Kogod Courtyard is a popular meeting place in DC. There is plenty of seating, free wifi, and a cafe with snacks for museum visitors open from 11:30 am until 6:30 pm.
Design approval for the canopy proved difficult. The design had to be approved by the
National Capital Planning Commission
The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) is a U.S. government executive branch agency that provides planning guidance for Washington, D.C., and the surrounding National Capital Region. Through its planning policies and review of developmen ...
(NCPC), which has statutory authority to approve all buildings and renovations in the D.C. metropolitan area. Although the NCPC approved the preliminary design,
the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), the
United States Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...
, the D.C. State Preservation Office, and the
National Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by ...
all opposed the enclosure of the courtyard. The NCPC reversed its preliminary approval on June 2, 2005.
[Forgey, Benjamin. "Panel Rejects Smithsonian Plan For Patent Office." ''Washington Post.'' June 3, 2005.] Unwilling to lose the canopy, the Smithsonian brought five alternatives to the NCPC on August 4. On September 8, 2005, the NCPC reversed itself yet again, and approved one of the revised designs. The delay cost the Smithsonian $10 million.
In October 2005, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation made a $45 million donation to the NPG to finish both the building renovation and the canopy. The Smithsonian agreed to call the two museums, the conservation center, courtyard, storage facility, and other operations within the Old Patent Office complex the "Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture" in appreciation for the gift. The National Portrait Gallery reopened on July 1, 2006. The total cost of the building's renovation was $283 million.
Attendance at the renovated building rose significantly to 214,495 in just two months. In the past, both museums had drawn just 450,000 over 12 months. The achievement was even more impressive in the face of flat or declining attendance at all other Smithsonian museums. The higher attendance was not all positive. Some patrons spit on art they did not like, while others kissed or touched some paintings. Video security cameras were hastily installed in September 2007 to stop the vandalism. By the end of the year, more than 786,000 people had visited the two museums.
Governance and directors
The National Portrait Gallery is governed by a board of directors known as the National Portrait Gallery Commission. The commission members are appointed by the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. The museum is led by a Director, who oversees its day-to-day activities. Directors of the museum include:
*
Charles Nagel – July 1, 1964 – 1969
*Marvin Sadik – 1969 – July 1981
*Alan M. Fern – June 1982 – 2000
*
Marc Pachter – 2000–2007
*
Martin E. Sullivan
Martin E. Sullivan (February 9, 1944 – February 25, 2014) was a museum director, and served as Director of the United States National Portrait Gallery (United States), National Portrait Gallery, administered by the Smithsonian Institution, from ...
– 2008–2012
*Wendy Wick Reaves – 2012–2013 (interim)
*Kim Sajet – April 2013–
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
*Acker, William B. ''Memorandum History of the Department of the Interior.'' Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, 1913.
*Alexander, Edward P. ''Museum Masters: Their Museums and Their Influence.'' Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 1995.
*Bureau of Land Management. ''Landmarks in Public Land Management.'' Department of the Interior. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962.
*Committee on Appropriations. ''First Supplemental Civil Functions Appropriation Bill for 1941. Hearings Before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Appopriations.'' Committee on Appropriations. U.S. House of Representatives. 76th Cong., 3d sess. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1940.
*Dale, Alzina Stone. ''Mystery Reader's Walking Guide, Washington, D.C.'' Lincoln, Neb.: IUniverse, 1998.
*Fixico, Donald Lee. ''Bureau of Indian Affairs.'' Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood, 2012.
*Moeller, Gerard Martin and Feldblyum, Boris. ''AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C.'' Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012.
*National Park Service. ''Report of the Director of the National Park Service to the Secretary of the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1924.'' Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1924.
*
Oehser, Paul H. The Smithsonian Institution. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970.
*''Permanent Collection Illustrated Checklist.'' Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1980.
*Price, Tom and Price, Susan Crites. ''Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Washington, D.C.'' Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley Publishing, 2007.
*Public Buildings Commission. ''Annual Report of the Public Buildings Commission for the Calendar Year 1932.'' Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1933.
*Ross, Betty. ''A Museum Guide to Washington, D.C.'' Washington, D.C.: Americana Press, 1986.
*Sandler, Corey. ''Washington, D.C., Williamsburg, Busch Gardens, Richmond and Other Area Attractions.'' Lincolnwood, Ill.: Verulam, 2000.
*Schultz, Patricia. ''1,000 Places to See in the United States & Canada Before You Die.'' New York: Workman Publishing, 2011.
*Secretary of the Interior. ''Report of the Secretary of the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899.'' Department of the Interior. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899.
*Select Subcommittee on Education. ''Aid to Fine Arts: Hearing Before the Select Subcommittee on Education of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Eighty-Seventh Congress, First Session, on H.R. 4172, H.R. 4174, and Related Bills to Aid the Fine Arts in the United States. Hearing Held in Washington, D.C., May 15, 1961.'' Select Subcommittee on Education. Committee on Education and Labor. U.S. House of Representatives. 87th Cong., 1st sess. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1961.
*Silber, Nina. ''Landmarks of the Civil War.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
*Smith, Carol. "Portraying the Black Atlantic: Americanisation and the National Museum." In ''Issues in Americanisation and Culture.'' Jude Davies, Neil Campbell, and George McKay, eds. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004.
*
Ward, David C. 2004 ''Charles Willson Peale: Art and Selfhood in the Early Republic'' Berkley, California : University of California Press
External links
*
Negotiating American Identity in the National Portrait Gallery.C-SPAN ''Q&A'' interview with Marc Pachter, December 30, 2007Virtual tour of the National Portrait Gallery (United States)provided by
Google Arts & Culture
*
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Members of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington
Greek Revival architecture in Washington, D.C.
Art museums and galleries in Washington, D.C.
Biographical museums in Washington, D.C.
Smithsonian Institution museums
Art museums established in 1968
1968 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Art galleries established in 1968
Portrait galleries
Portrait Gallery US
Chinatown (Washington, D.C.)