Two important cogs in the Smithsonian system are closed for renovation until 2004. Separated from the main Mall galleries, the
SmithsonianAmerican Art Museum
, Eighth and G streets NW (closest Metro stop is Gallery Place-Chinatown;
) may not get the traffic of the other museums, but it's perhaps the most worthwhile of all, and in the past has mounted thought-provoking shows. Opened in 1829, the museum was known as the National Gallery of Art before Andrew Mellon later usurped that name. Since 1968, it has shared the Greek Revival-style
Old Patent Office
with the National Portrait Gallery. The collection ranges from splendid nineteenth-century examples of "Art of the American West" - including almost 400 paintings by George Catlin, who spent six years on the Great Plains - to Revolutionary portraits and dramatic American landscapes. More recent pieces have been displayed on the top floor in the vaulted and colonnaded
Lincoln Gallery
, which in 1865 hosted President Lincoln's Inaugural Ball and remains one of DC's most celebrated interior spaces.
The
National Portrait Gallery
at Eighth and F streets NW (
) holds pretty much what you'd expect: paintings, sculptures and photographs of famous and not-so-famous people, from Pocahontas to Mark Twain, and includes Gilbert Stuart's famous "Lansdowne" portrait of George Washington, as well as portraits and sculptures of every president. There's also the odd masterpiece on show - like Edgar Degas' severe portrait of his friend, Impressionist Mary Cassatt.
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