Hopping down the bunny trail

In celebration of Easter, I went to the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. The two museum share the building (that used to be the patent office), and the building is beautiful. There are three floors so I did my usual routine, which is start at the top and work my way down. The museums are split in a east/west fashion so there are signs to let you know which museum you are visiting. As you might have guessed only portraits are displayed in the National Portrait Gallery, but the portraits are from all over the world. The American Art Museum is limited to the work of American painters and occasionally, (especially during the pre-Revolutionary period), work of European painters that are American subjects or landscapes. I loved these two museums. It was smaller than the National Gallery and a little better laid out (so you could actually work you're way through the gallery without having to backtrack). As usual, I took a lot of pictures, which you can see here, and again, there are captions. There was a wide variety of American Art, from American Impressionism to American folk art (which did contain some pieces that veered toward the world of the probot, but the early 20th century folk was good). The portraits were interesting because there were short biographies of the subject of the painting. However, no pictures were allowed in my favorite exhibit because it was a temporary exhibit and thus no photographs. But, happily, you can see it online. The exhibit was called To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America, which was by the folk art portion of the American Art museum. You can check out the exhibit online here. After spending about 5 hours in the museum, I headed back to my apartment to make my Easter dinner of Lemon-Garlic lamb chops, roasted potatoes, and fresh broccoli. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, full of good food, hidden eggs, and time with family.