America’s only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House is currently on lavish display at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., as part of an extensive four-phase renovation.
A portrait of former President Barack Obama by acclaimed artist Chuck Close from 2013 is among the artworks on brilliant display at Washington’s National Portrait Gallery. Titled “America’s Presidents,” the temporary exhibition will offer visitors a change to “see an enhanced and extended display of multiple images of all the United States presidents,” the museum reports, “including Charles Willson Peale’s portrait of George Washington, currently on loan from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The exhibition also features whimsical sculptures of Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, and George H. W. Bush by noted caricaturist Pat Oliphant. Presidents Washington, Andrew Jackson, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt are given expanded attention because of their significant impact on the office. Presidents from FDR to Bill Clinton are featured in a video component of the exhibit.”
“America’s Presidents” is temporarily on view now through September 4 at the museum’s west gallery on the second floor. On September 22, the exhibition reopens at the newly restored and refurbished “America’s President’s Gallery.” Gilbert Stuart’s “Lansdowne” portrait of George Washington will also be reinstalled after September 22 after 18 months of careful conservation and analysis.
To learn more, visit the National Portrait Gallery.
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