The Capitol Dome

I am adding to what they are doing. Most of the public in gen- eral are not going to read a Ph.D thesis, but there is a chance they will look at a painting. WdG: When we first talked, you said to remind you about the gasolier. Was that one of your research questions? PW: It's connected to research. I was working on a project about the history of the Capitol and I was working with Diane Skvarla, who was Senate curator, and I was examining some ancient photos she had given me of Senate hallways for one of the paintings. And I recognized that the gasolier in the stereo- scopic photo looked identical to one in the boiler room here at Tudor Place. 1 So I told Diane, and she came over and looked at it. Eventually, they decided it was in fact absolutely identical. I find that, when you're an artist, you're not always taken with the same authority as a historian. I mean, I make mistakes. But I'm usually pretty accurate if I stick it in a painting. Any- way, they decided it was [the same gasolier]. It's now hung in the Capitol in the Trophy Room. I think I understand now how it came to be in Tudor Place, which is, in itself, a good story. Paul Bartlett, the sculptor, was married to a Peter family relative and he did the sculptures on the east portico of the Capitol in about 1900. When he died, a lot of his sculpture stuff ended up here in storage at Tudor Place. They have since moved on to another museum. But I believe that it came with Paul's stuff after he died, and I think he got it while he was working on the Capitol, and that was about the time it was pulled out and thrown away. Now I don't have historical evidence for that but I am just about certain that that is the connection, and no one has offered a better one. It's the kind of thing an artist would grasp. . . . It was a mys- tery I was interested in. It took thirteen years to get it hang- ing in the Capitol, and it's been immensely satisfying to see it restored and returned to the Capitol. WdG: And it had nothing to do with painting per se. Just your visual memory. . . . PW: . . . And it didn't gain me one cent. [laughter] WdG: What's your favorite topic that you have ever painted? Is there a favorite period, favorite setting, favorite episode? PW: I guess anything to do with Washington. I am in love with Washington. There is no doubt. I wake up and squeal with joy. WdG: Was that true from the first time you came to DC? PW: Oh, yes, I knew I was coming; I think it was in 1991. Just before [President Bill] Clinton. It was such a diverse city and so fascinating. I have never been bored in Washington. It's just gripping. To get back to your original question: anything with ladies and beautiful clothes, I have a weakness for. Especially, clothing of the 1860s and 70s, because it is so extreme. I like pretty ladies. I like painting things, I like representing surfaces, tex- tiles, furniture. It's taken me years and years to develop the skills to actually describe surfaces, and doing it gives me great satisfaction. Like shiny brass . . . I mean, you can say "Oh, it's a parlor trick." But I tell you, it's not nothing to have learned how to do it. In recent years we are in a Dadaist revival and ENTRY HALL TUDOR PLACE, 60" x 48" oil on canvas Some important Washington historic interiors remain intact and perfectly preserved. That is the case of the entry hall designed by William Thornton (first architect of the Capitol) at Tudor Place. The Peter family did a remarkable job of preserving not only the physi- cal space but also the atmosphere of the house. The spectacular enfalade of rooms is almost unchanged from when Lafayette visited the house in 1824. 36 THE CAPITOL DOME

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