National gallery of art

We’re baaaaaaaackkkk!

Same adventurous family, new area of the Earth! From Japan to Southern Maryland, with an 18 month side-stay in Mississippi. So we’ve swapped wandering through serene temples to soaking in the history of the capital of our country. Stick with me as I work through reintroducing my mind to blogging mode.

Our first trip into DC was because of a wonderful opportunity our homeschool group arranged. The kids were able to go on a guided tour through the National Gallery of Art and learn how to see nature in art. The tour was roughly one hour and was completely free. So, we packed our freshly baked banana bread, sandwich fixings, and our trusty water bottles and hit the road around 9:20. The drive was easy....just an hour and a half from Three Notch in Lex Park to a parking garage just off I395 one block from the Mall. Oy....I was nervous about driving into DC. Probably because most of my memories of driving through DC involve my mom telling us to be quiet so she can think because she made a wrong turn in the city and she was trying to figure out how to get back to Delaware. Ya know....back on the days when there was no such thing as an iPhone *gasp* or in-car GPS *doublegasp* How we ever made it back across the Bay Bridge and home without those things is beyond what my iBrain can comprehend. 

Okay...so after parking waaaaay underground, we made our way over to the Mall to squeeze in a little exploring before our school group meeting at 1230. First up... Garytt wants a shot in front of the Mall with the Washington Monument in the background. Future photo director award goes to Garytt....”Mom, take a picture of that and send it to me!”

After scoping out the co-op meeting spot, we made our way to the Smithsonian Castle. ~A little back story...A month ago in reading, Garytt had a comprehension assignment about James Smithson and the 19 museums that were borne of his collections. His estate was designated to be used to “found in Washington...an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge of men.” Since Garytt read that article he’s determined to hit up every.single.museum. I love that Boy. 

The Castle is beautiful. But it’s really just a simple visitor center. It has samples from all of the SI museums so you can get an idea of what you will see in each. There’s also a few interactive displays in the lobby. So, you can pull up a layout of the Mall and see the time it takes to get from museum to museum, tell the computer how many hours you have, and then have the computer help plot out a plan. Then it emails the details to an address you provide. We played on this for a bit, just trying to see how long it took to get from place to place. We already had a plan for the day, so after several minutes I convinced the kids to move on. 

From the main lobby, after the security bag check, we moved away from the cafe and toward the west wing. This contained a few of the first pieces admitted to the museum and then it had several display panels telling the history of James Smithson and the museum he started. 

A lion head armchair

The final section of the Castle we checked out was what used to be the library. It’s a beautiful room! The arches....the dark colored wood....the high windows....the lights highlighting it all. Wow! Wowowow!

Alright, after we put our jackets back on we headed out to make our way to the Gallery. Aaaaafter a few shots of the Castle....directed by Garytt. 

I managed to squeeze in a little walk through the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden. The kids really enjoyed the few pieces in here. From a little house that seemed to change it’s perspective as we walked around it to the huge metal tree. 

To the thinker rabbit. 

Now...the main attraction! The National Gallery of Art. 



Once the big group was split into smaller groups: Littles, Middles, and Bigs; we found our enthusiastic guide and started our tour. 

First up....Children, explain to me what you see in this painting.  Almost every child in the group (we started the tour with about 8 kids ranging from age 8-13) raised their hand to offer their insight. They pointed out details I didn’t even see. This was my favorite of the day....probably because our guide gave a lot of interesting history details for the painting. 

“Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveller” ~ Edwin Henry Landseer 1820

I didn’t take any pictures from the next couple of sections, but Mackenzie’s favorite part was the “Voyage of Life” series of paintings by Thomas Cole, 1842. It’s a display of four paintings depicting four stages of life: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. 

The next gallery had Renoir and Monet. The kids were all given drawing pads, pencils, and a few minutes so they could sit and try to draw what they were seeing. Mackenzie lost her mind because her pencil didn’t have an eraser and apparently she can’t draw unless she has an eraser. Garytt has convulsions if I ask him to do anything ‘artsy’ because he “doesn’t do art”. 🙄 So, even though Mackenzie really liked this ballerina picture, she wouldn’t draw it. 

I did manage to convince {threaten} Garytt and he agreed to sit and draw a bridge from one of Monet’s paintings. I was sworn to secrecy though, so I can’t post a picture of his drawing. 



We did look at one more painting of a coming storm and that was supposed to be the end of our tour. However, once the guide told us that the NAG has the only da Vinci painting in the Americas, every single person in our group asked if she would show it to us. And, she agreed, happily!

“Ginevra de’ Benci 1474-ish



Our group moved on from here to explore the area a little more, but we had plans for the evening so we left at the tour’s conclusion. 

I’m not sure I’ll be able to convince the kids to spend a day exploring just this museum, but I’m pretty sure we can sneak in a section or two with each D.C. visit. Since it’s free to the public, it’s a nice little additional side trip.