Capital Portraits: Treasures from Washington Private Collections
presents little-known artistic treasures from important Washington area
private collections. These portraits by major artists date from the
mid-eighteenth century to the present, and they speak to the many
reasons that paintings and sculpture continue to represent and capture
human likenesses and personalities. Privately collected, commissioned,
or inherited, they have seldom, if ever, been seen in a public setting.
The catalogue, which accompanies an exhibition at the National Portrait
Gallery from April 1 through September 5, 2011, illustrates the
portraits and recounts their histories, including comments by living
sitters about having their portraits made.