Freer Courtyard - An Italian Garden Indoors
Photo: MBisanz, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
A stop on Washington DC National Mall Walking Tour, a free self-guided tour.
Charles Platt, a New York architect also known for his gardens, designed the Freer around an open central courtyard, and it is still the quiet center of the building. The gallery opened to the public on May 9, 1923.
The courtyard has a fountain in the middle, with the galleries arranged around it. Windows from the corridors look out over it, so as you move from Chinese bronzes to Japanese screens you keep coming back to the same calm view of water and sky.
Charles Lang Freer wanted visitors to look at art slowly, with time to rest their eyes, and the courtyard was part of that plan. On a warm day it is one of the most peaceful spots on the Mall.
Next, follow the signs to the Peacock Room.
More on Wikipedia: Freer Gallery of Art · Charles A. Platt · Charles Lang Freer
Stops on this tour
- Washington Monument
- National Museum of African American History and Cu
- National Museum of American History
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
- National Gallery of Art
- United States Capitol
- United States Botanic Garden
- National Museum of the American Indian
- National Air and Space Museum
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- The Smithsonian Institution Building - The Castle
- Freer Gallery of Art
- Jefferson Memorial
- World War II Memorial
- Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
- Korean War Memorial
- Lincoln Memorial
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- White House Ellipse
- White House
- Lafayette Square