Columnist Susan Snyder: LVAM is portrait of patriotism

Friday, April 5, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

They promise the guys won't have to wear tights.

But the volunteers who become "museum patriots" at the Las Vegas Art Museum will have some sort of identifying garb, even if it's just a name tag.

The museum, which is inside the West Sahara Library at 9600 W. Sahara Ave., will host the National Portrait Gallery's traveling exhibit, "George Washington: A National Treasure."

And museum officials say they need about 200 adult volunteers to help staff the exhibit that opens June 28 and closes Oct. 27.

Volunteers may be asked to give gallery tours, talk about the paintings or work in the gift shop or at the front desk, said Marianne Lorenz, the museum's executive director.

The show's focal point is the famous 206-year-old, full-length portrait of George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart. The 8-by-5-foot painting was purchased for $30 million in 2000 by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, which donated it to the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery, where it had been on loan by its British owner.

The rest of the exhibit is composed of works by 19th and 20th century American painters. The show currently is in Houston. Las Vegas is the second of eight cities on the circuit.

We'll have it for the Fourth of July, Nevada Day and Sept. 11, which has become an odd sort of marker on our national calendar. Museum officials are planning a memorial service and candlelight vigil for that day.

The Reynolds Foundation has given the museum $62,500 to upgrade its security and climate control systems, said Mary Bleier of Hall Communications, the firm doing the public relations gig for the museum.

Volunteers will learn about the portrait and our first president during training sessions in May and early June so they will be able to answer visitors' questions, Lorenz said.

If you can't volunteer or curiosity won't let you wait until May, check out georgewashington.si.edu. Even if you're not into art, there's some cool stuff to learn about ol' George.

For example, I didn't know the phrase, "Father of his country," was coined by a German-language newspaper (Des Landes Vater).

Click on various parts of the painting and you can learn that Washington pursed his lips because his dentures were ill-fitting and painful, and he had trouble keeping them in his mouth. He had only one natural tooth when he took office in 1789.

The painting, called the Lansdowne portrait, was commissioned by Sen. William Bingham as a gift for William Petty, the Marquis of Lansdowne. Petty was a British fan of Washington's.

It was sold several times after Lansdowne died in 1806, passing into the hands of owners on both sides of the Atlantic. An English earl loaned it to the Smithsonian in 1968 and put it up for sale in 2000.

Washington sat for the portrait April 12, 1796, in Philadelphia. He posed long enough for Stuart to finish his face, but a stand-in posed for his body. The room is Stuart's figment.

The portrait is packed with symbols, Lorenz said, and the exhibit includes interactive stations explaining those.

Prospective volunteers should call the museum, 360-8000.