Art Review: National Portrait Gallery — Ways to Make a Good Museum Better

Earlier this week I wrote about the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), the very good and too often overlooked art gallery a short walk from Ford’s Theatre and the National Archives. It shares an elegant, indeed breathtaking, old Greek Revival building with the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), my topic today. The building, modeled after the Parthenon, was once the U.S. Patent Office. It was renovated and repurposed in the Aughts for these two impressive museums. Both are part of the Smithsonian.

SAAM looks great and, aside from acquisition duds and an uneven exhibition program, it’s a model museum. The new home of the NPG and SAAM opened in 2006. It has an immense courtyard, once open but enclosed with a handsome glass roof during the renovation, thanks to the generosity of Washington art collectors Bob and Arlene Kogod. It’s a chic, comfortable space and one of Washington’s most elegant.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

Earlier this week I wrote about the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), the very good and too often overlooked art gallery a short walk from Ford’s Theatre and the National Archives. It shares an elegant, indeed breathtaking, old Greek Revival building with the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), my topic today. The building, modeled after the Parthenon, was once the U.S. Patent Office. It was renovated and repurposed in the Aughts for these two impressive museums. Both are part of the Smithsonian.

SAAM looks great and, aside from acquisition duds and an uneven exhibition program, it’s a model museum. The new home of the NPG and SAAM opened in 2006. It has an immense courtyard, once open but enclosed with a handsome glass roof during the renovation, thanks to the generosity of Washington art collectors Bob and Arlene Kogod. It’s a chic, comfortable space and one of Washington’s most elegant.