The museum's description of the show made me realize that both artists preferred to paint the human form versus landscapes and came from similar, highly educated and wealthy backgrounds. I also was not aware they were such good friends and champions of each other's work, which is quite touching really. I previously wrote about Cassatt for this blog in 2012.
If you stop by the NGA before Sept. 18, you can also still see this Van Gogh painting now on loan to the museum from the Netherlands.
While the National Museum of the American Indian arguably boasts the best museum cafeteria dining experience in Washington, the NGA would certainly be a close runner up, with healthy and tasty fare on offer - albeit for a slightly higher price than the more greasy fast food available at many of the Smithsonian museums just a stone's throw away on the National Mall - in a delightful indoor cafeteria setting with an excellent gelato and espresso bar (some people just go for the gelato!).
A more formal cafe and a small cafe with coffee, wine and snacks at the museum's delightful sculpture garden round out its culinary repertoire.
Here are some impressions of the sculpture garden, from a time when I was going a bit overboard with my amateur Photoshop skills while I was enrolled in a cool weekend multimedia journalism program at the University of Maryland, which really made my life at the time ... :
Metropolitain
Spider
Silver Tree
