A week may be a long time in politics, but a day seems like several weeks when you are looking after a baby, even one as well-behaved as young Alex. In order to break the day up a bit, Master Shercliff and I have resolved to try to undertake an activity outside the house every afternoon - but so far that has mostly consisted of a walk down to Starbucks at the end of the road. Having been there four times this week I thought it was time I began to introduce the youngster to some of Washington's other cultural highlights (I knew it was time to venture further afield when I was greeted with a 'decaf latte?' as I entered the store) and today's trip was to the National Gallery. Meeting the Grand Masters was a significant step in Alex's artistic education and so the young man decided to dress in proper clothes for the occasion. Rather than sporting an item from his extensive babygrow collection, he wore jeans and a hooded top for the first time today - which provided us with a preview of what he'll be like as a sulky teenager:
Once at the Gallery (it took us 20 minutes to cross the street as our little visit happened to coincide with the annual anti-abortion 'March for Life'), we joined a tour of highlights of the collection, focusing on masterpieces of European and American art from the 13th to the early 20th century. Alex slept soundly throughout the detailed expositions on works by Giotto, Giorgione, Rubens, Rembrandt and Van Eyck...
...and failed to admire the portraits of Napoleon and Gilbert Stuart's five Presidents. Even George couldn't raise him from his slumber:
In fact, Alex opened his eyes very briefly only once, in front of the only portrait in the Americas painted by Da Vinci (that of Ginevra de' Benci) and the undisputed highlight of the National Gallery's collection, thus displaying impressive artistic judgement for one of such a tender age.
All in all, the trip was quite a success. Although at today's pace (we saw 9 paintings in an hour) it may take us a few more artistic afternoons before we have exhausted the 100,000 works of art in the National Gallery's collection.
Il est vraiment très marrant Dans sa tenue d'ado!
Un vrai petit mec!
Courage à la maman pour ce travail à temps plein!
Guylène
Posted by: Guylène | January 29, 2010 at 06:31 PM