facetofaceA blog from the National Portrait Gallery

Columns at the museum's entrance

Face-to-Face is the National Portrait Gallery's blog, dedicated to art, history, and the telling of American lives.

Black and white photograph of a woman in draped black clothing

The Women’s March: A Hundred Years Later

January 19, 2017

One of the things that makes the modern presidency a particularly difficult—perhaps even impossible—job is that Americans expect their presidents to be both sublimely confident and powerful statesmen but also “just plain folks,” no different, really, than you and I. Politicians, of course, know the value of the homey touch and of posing as a man of the people in order to create an appealing persona. These days a great deal of thought, and money, goes into creating an appealing image of a candidate. In our m

The Importance of Presidential Trivia

January 18, 2017

People in nineteenth century attire cutting into a large wheel of cheese

The Big Cheese: Presidential Gifts of Mammoth Proportions

January 17, 2017

Photograph portrait of Donald Trump in a suit and tossing an apple in the air. The background is blue sky with clouds.

Now on View: Portrait of President-Elect Donald J. Trump

January 13, 2017

Painted bust portrait of a man in a suit

Pop Quiz: Inauguration

January 11, 2017

Black and white image of a well-dressed woman looking to the left

Inventing Zora Neale Hurston: The Shape-Shifting Woman and Her Portraitist

January 6, 2017

Black and white image of a woman standing in profile singing into a microphone

"In The Groove: Jazz Portraits by Herman Leonard"

January 3, 2017

Sepia tone photograph of a woman with her hands on her neck

Portrait Spotlight: Consuelo Kanaga

December 14, 2016

Full-length portrait of a man in a black suit with his right arm outstretched

"...For the People": The Presidential Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery

December 13, 2016

Black and white image of woman wearing white dress and smiling softly

Rosa Parks: Tired of Giving In

December 1, 2016

Woman dressed in black dress stands in front of a portrait and looks to the left

The Measure of Our Lives

November 29, 2016

People standing in a line

Bill Viola: The Moving Portrait

November 18, 2016

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