Going Smithsonian (National Portrait gallery and American Art Museum, Air & Space Museum, National Museum of Natural History) ~'My Experience'~

~The National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum~

These two Museams, are now refereed to as the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture.

~The National Portrait Gallery~

The National Portrait Gallery is a must see if any of you are in D.C. There is an "American Presidents" exhibit, kind of self explanatory, which houses portraits of early american presidents, this is located on the second floor. This exhibit, besides the paintings in the White House, is the only other complete collection of presidential portraits in the United States. The painting in this exhibit that I liked the most was "Lansdowne". It is a portrait of our very first president George Washington. The painting was done by Gilbert Stuart in 1796. I did not have a chance to stay in the Portrait Gallery for very long, however i did have a chance to see the "One life: Echos of Elvis" exhibit, which is not a permanent exhibit, like the "American Presidents". Everything was breathtaking.

~The Smithsonian American Art Museum~

The first floor is full of 19th century paintings, pictures as well as some modern sculpture. It is called "American Experience". The Paintings are mostly done by Edward Hopper, who lived from 1882 to 1967. Edward Hopper was a prominent realist painter, and I believe he was also into print making. His most commonly known painting is "Nighthawks" which was done in 1942. One painting that stuck in my mind was "Manhattan" By george O'keeffe, It was absolutly amazing to finally get to see this in person. On the second floor, the exhibit that I enjoyed most was, "American Art Through 1940" some artists in this exhibit were Frederic Auguste Barthold, Thomas Moran, and John Singer Sargent. John Singer Sargents work on display is known as the "Guided Age Portraits" <- I remembered that from Art History. John Singer Sargent lived from 1856 to 1925.

~National Air and Space Museum~

On my adventure in Washington D.C. during the cherry blossoms in april, along with going to the National Gallery of art and the Reynolds Center, I also went to the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Natural History.

First, i will talk about the National Air and Space Museum. The National Air and Space Museum is a fascinating place, not only do you learn about Space and Technology, but the history behind it, as well as learning about techniques used during WWI and WWII, the planes and battleships that our country has used since the early 1900's. When you first walk into this museum, there are planes hanging from the ceiling. They have the wright brothers plane on display as well as Apollo 11's command module. The amount of United States history in this museum is astonishing. They have a number of Grumman planes- including the 'Hell Cat' , 'X-29 Experimental', and the f-14 tomcat. Seeing these planes in person was wonderful for me. my late grandfather was a head engineer for Grumman and specifically worked on these planes.

There are so many things to see in this Museum, the exhibits are broken down like this: On the first floor, they have "milestones of flight" which include the spirit of st. louise, apollo 11 and the x-15. "Golden Age Of flight" with Howard Hughes, H-1 racer, breaking speed records in 1937. "America by Air" with the nose of a 747 passenger jet you can literally walk in and a Douglas DC-3. "Space Race" With huge rockets extending almost to the ceiling. "Explore the Universe" Cosmo-Technology show room, this exhibit has telescopes used to look into space. My favorite exhibit: "How things Fly"

- The second floor has "Sea-Air Operations" Battleships/aircraft carriers, examples and movies of what life is like on an aircraft carrier. You can even stand at the helm of one! "Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" including the drones. "World War Two Aviation" , "Legend, Memory of the Great War in the Air" , "Exploring the Planets" , " Apollo and the Moon" , " the Wright Brothers and Invention of the Areal Age" and "Beyond the Limits".

There is so much historical information to absorb at time spent at this museum. Being able to see the first plane that ever took flight, or seeing how astronauts live in space, (what they eat/wear) is amazing to me. By far the most intriguing thing I absorbed was the advancement of technology within 100 years, we went from flying a wooden plane to traveling to the moon. What's Next?

~The National Museum of Natural History~

This is a Museum i'm sure you all know of. Im sure most of you have visited or at least herd of this Museum. This Museum is fascinating. When you first walk in, there is a giant elephant on display. Once again the architecture inside is absolutely amazing. All marble stairs and railings and walls makes it feel like a palace. The vast open space of the main hall, (the first room you walk into) is immense, almost somewhat hard to grasp. they have everything from fossils of dinosaurs to precious gems. My favorite piece was the, Architeuthis (Giant Squid), i have always wanted to see one, and they have one thats 36ft long or something. Its being preserved in formaldehyde behind glass, but it is unbelievable to see in person. Another one of my favorite exhibits was the precious gems. They had the Hope Diamond. which was really hard to see due to how many people were looking at it, but i finally got my turn. The hope diamond is an astonishing 45.52 carrot diamond. Other exhibits they have there are named "Sant Ocean Hall" Which has everything you ever need to know about ocean life. "Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals" which has a tremendous amount of stuffed animals. (Probably 200+)

"Discovery Room" has fossils, shells and skulls, as well as a fossil lab set up, so you can see what goes on in the lab. "Paleontology" which is where the dinosaurs are. "life in the Ancient Seas" 540 million years of life? wowzer. "Fossil Plants Hall" self explanatory, but 350 million year old fossils here. " The Ice Age hall" is how humans lived during the ice age. "Western Cultures", "Forensic anthropology" , "Bones and Reptiles" , "the Korea Gallery" , "Insects" <- this was really cool, i enjoyed looking at all the butterflies, with all the different designs on their wings. There is so much to see at the National Museum Of Natural History, its hard to see it all in one day.

The Philadelphia Museum Of Art (My Experience)

Another Museum i visited was the Philadelphia Museum Of art. Rocky trained on these stairs

(haha). Anyway, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has a fascinating Picasso exhibit, with everything from his Blue Period, to his Black period. They have an outstanding collection of Italian made 'suits of armor', from the 15th Century. They have a reproduction of a 14th Century castle which was amazing. You can see what life was like back then, with out going to England / Scotland and visiting the ruins in person!

The Museum has 3 floors, with a North and South wing. On the ground floor there are some prints, drawings and photographs, but consists mainly of a cafe/restaurant, a museum store, with the south wing being an education student center. The First floor, is broken up with the north wing consisting of American Art, the south wing: Modern and contemporary art. Also there is European Art from 1850-1900, and a special Exhibitions gallery which is where the Picasso exhibit was. The Second Floor Has Asian Art in the north wing, European Art( 1500-1850) in the south. This floor also has the Arms and Armor exhibit, and the castle reproduction.

I was astonished of how many Monet Paintings they had on display, this was like the amount of Rembrandt paintings at the National Gallery. Monet is one of my favorite painters, and some of his works on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art consisted of: The Shelterd Path, Green Park London, Poplars on the Bank of the Epte River, Poplars, Bent in the Epte River, Under the Pines. Another one of my favorite painters Renoir: Boy With Toy Soldier, Still Life with Flowers and Fruit, Portrait of Alfrid With His Dog, Two Girls, Peaches and Flowers in a Vase. They also had Rain, By Van Gogh! There were also some of paul Cezanne's work on desplay, consisting of: Still Life With Flowers & Olive jar, Bay of L'esaque, Mont Saint Victor, Winter Land Scape and the Large Brothers. Degas was among their collection, with a painting known as After The Bath.

This Museum had awesome marble work as well. The stairs in the main hall when you first walk in are tremendous. The columns at your side reaching 60 plus feet to the ceiling. (Absently Amazing!) Id say, I was impressed with the variety of art collected in this museum, from the oriental rugs to the suits of armor it was overall a great experience.

National Gallery of Art (My Experience)

The national gallery of Art, is simply the most enchanting museum I have ever been too. It is in Washington D.C. for those who don't know. The main gallery (The West Building) was built in the 1937, the (East Building) and the addition of the sculpture garden went up in 1978. The architecture is absolutely amazing, the marble work inside is extravagant, with gigantic columns 4 foot wide, stretching 40 plus feet too the ceiling. Not only are there marble columns huge, 90% of the floor is made of marble with intricate designs laid out that are jaw dropping. The craftsmanship of the marble is worth the trip alone.

As for the art, the collection that the National Gallery has in my opinion is the best in the entire country, or at least the east coast, for i have never been to the pacific. They have everything from 13th century italian art too 20th century sculpture. To be specific, in the main building they have paintings from 13th-15th century Italian, 16th century Italian and Spanish, 17th century Italian, French and Spanish, 18th century italian, 15th -16th century Neverlandish and German, 17th Century Dutch and Flemish, 18th-19th century Spanish, 18th-19th century French, 19th century French. the Armand Hammer Galleries include prints and drawings. They also have 16th -20th century sculpture. The sculpture included everything from porcelain to solid copper sculptures. I noticed that the national gallery has a lot of private collections, where photography was prohibited. ( I took some pics and the security guard made me erase them off my camera, i should have been more inconspicuous).

My favorite exhibit aside from the countless Rembrandt paintings they had, was the Chester Dale Collection, "From Impressionism to Modernism" The artists and their work consisted of: George Bellows: (Maud Dale, 1919, oil on wood) William Merrit Chase: (A Friendly Call, 1895, oil on canvas) Henri Matisse (The Plumed Hat, 1919, oil on canvas) Mary Casset: (The Boating Party, 1894/94, oil on canvas) Amedeo Modigliani: (Gypsy Woman with baby, 1919, oil on canvas) Edgar Degas: (Edmondo and Therese Morbilli, 1865, oil on canvas) Paul Cezanne: (The Peppermint Bottle, 1893/95, oil on canvas) Claude Monet: (The Houses of Parliament 'Sunset', 1903, oil on canvas).

The Sculpture Garden out side the National Gallery, was outstanding. There were some very unique sculptures there, Look to the top for a few of my personal favorites.

Another thing that amazed me was the amount of Rembrandt paintings they had. This has to be the largest collection in the United States. There were many there that i had studied in art history classes at Albertus. A few of my favorites were: Gentlemen with a Hat, Lucretia, The Circumcision, Joseph Accused by Potiphai's Wife, The Girl with a Broom, A Polish Nobleman, Man in Oriental Costume, Man With a Tall Hat, A self Portrait from 1659, An Old Lady With a Book, The decent from a cross and a young man seated at a table.

Overall this was an experience of a lifetime, and i am most certain i will be visiting the National Gallery again.