National Gallery of Art
The visually stunning National Gallery of Art is one of the most important museums in the USA, though not part of the Smithsonian per se. The original Neoclassical gallery, opened in 1941, is now called the West Building and holds the bulk of the permanent collection. Galleries to the west on the main floor display major works by early- and high-Renaissance and Baroque masters, arranged by nationality: half a dozen Rembrandts fill the Dutch gallery, including a glowing, mad portrait of Lucretia; Van Eyck and Rubens dominate the Flemish; and El Greco, Goya and Velázquez face off in the Spanish. In the voluminous Italian galleries, there’s the only da Vinci in the Americas, the 1474 Ginevra de’ Benci, painted in oil on wood; Titian’s vivid image of Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos and Venus with a Mirror; and Raphael’s renowned Alba Madonna (1510). The other half of the West Building holds an exceptional collection of nineteenth-century paintings – a couple of Van Goghs, some Monet studies of Rouen Cathedral and water lilies, Cézanne still lifes and the like. For British art, you can find genteel portraits by Gainsborough and Reynolds, and even more evocative hazy land- and waterscapes by J.M.W. Turner. Augustus St Gaudens’ magisterial battle sculpture Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment takes up a whole room to itself.
The East Building
The National Gallery’s East Building (same hours and admission) was opened in 1978 with an audaciously modern I.M. Pei design, dominated by a huge atrium. European highlights of the permanent collection include Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period pieces The Tragedy and Family of Saltimbanques, along with his Cubist Nude Woman, and Henri Matisse’s exuberant Pianist and Checker Players. Andy Warhol’s works are as familiar as they come, with classic serial pieces 32 Soup Cans, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men and Green Marilyn. Notable Abstract Expressionist works include large, hovering slabs of blurry colour by Mark Rothko, The Stations of the Cross by Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock’s Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist). There’s also Robert Rauschenberg’s splattered, stuffed-bird sculpture known as Canyon, and Jasper Johns’s Targets, which is among his most influential works.
National Museum of American History
One of the prime repositories of US cultural artefacts is the National Museum of American History, which was imaginatively renovated in 2008. A wide common area off the lobby is lined with “artefact walls” that show off some of the items that the museum previously had to keep in storage – from 200-year-old tavern signs and toy chests, to the John Bull, the nation’s oldest functioning steam locomotive, dating from 1831. Elsewhere in the museum, you’re apt to find anything from George Washington’s wooden teeth to Jackie Kennedy’s designer dresses to Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz. You could easily spend a full day poking around the displays, but three to four hours would be a reasonable compromise – and to stick to this time frame, you’ll have to be selective. The museum’s biggest draw is the battered red, white and blue flag that inspired the US national anthem – the Star-Spangled Banner itself, which survived the British bombardment of Baltimore Harbor during the War of 1812. Until the new National Museum of African American History and Culture opens on the Mall (due in 2015; nmaahc.si.edu) exhibits from its collection are on display here.
Washington DC nightlife and entertainment
Peak times for drinking in DC tend to be during rush hour, but for solid late-night imbibing, the well-worn haunts of collegiate Georgetown, yuppified Dupont Circle and boisterous Adams Morgan will do nicely – and in the suit-and-tie spots on Capitol Hill, you can even spy a politician or two. For clubs, expect to pay a cover of $5 to $25 (highest on weekends); ticket prices for most gigs run to the same amount, unless you’re seeing a major name. Check the free weekly CityPaper (washingtoncitypaper.com) for up-to-date listings of music, theatre and other events, in addition to alternative features and reporting. Gay and lesbian life is centred on Dupont Circle.
US Capitol
The US Capitol is the most prominent sight in Washington DC and an essential stop for anyone with a political bent.
George Washington laid the building’s cornerstone in 1793 in a ceremony rich with Masonic symbolism, and though the Capitol was torched by the British during the War of 1812, it was rebuilt and repeatedly expanded over the ensuing centuries. Ten presidents – most recently Gerald Ford – have lain in state in the impressive Rotunda, which, capped by a massive cast-iron dome 180ft high and 96ft across, links the two halves of Congress – the Senate in the north wing, the House of Representatives in the south. When the “Tholos” lantern above the dome is lit, Congress is in session. The Rotunda is decorated with massive frescoes and paintings of national heroes, and other highlights include the esteemed casts of famous personages in National Statuary Hall; the historic chambers for the US Senate and Supreme Court; and the Crypt where George Washington was supposed to be buried, but which now serves as an exhibition hall.