Ain't It Grand?

Tomorrow, staff exhibitions designer Robyn Kennedy talks about her design for the recently refurbished Grand Salon.

Friday's Gallery Talk takes place at 1 P.M. in the Grand Salon of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery.

The Grand Salon recently reopened after six months of refurbishment. Custom-made draperies, a state-of-the art lighting system, and gilded frieze elements help to re-create the elegant setting of a nineteenth-century collector's picture gallery.

Among the 170 paintings and sculpture on view is this seasonal tribute (shown below) by William A. Coffin, a landscape and figure painter who was influenced by French landscape painting.

The Renwick Gallery is located at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, across from the White House.

Pictured top: Unidentified Artist, Grand Salon, Renwick Gallery, about 1878, historic print from the Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Pictured bottom: William A. Coffin, 1855–1925, September, about 1907, oil, 30 1/4 x 40 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans.