Presidential Portraits

As you may know, I am passionate about portraits and the artists who paint them. For this post, allow me to share some of the portraits of the Presidents of the United States. The image of our first president was captured in several paintings by American artist, Gilbert Stuart. President George Washington sat for many portraits, perhaps the most notable of these is the unfinished "The Athenaeum". Originally commissioned by Martha Washington, Stuart refused to part with the portrait and intentionally left it unfinished to use as a reference for other paintings. This particular likeness was used for the image engraved on the one-dollar bill.


A portrait of Teddy Roosevelt was painted by perhaps my favorite portrait artist, Anglo-American John Singer Sargent.

My favorite Sargent painting is known as "Capri Girl" (1878). My daughter and I saw it on display at the Seattle Art Museum and we stood admiring it for several minutes.

The other President Roosevelt, FDR, was captured by two artists in 1945, the year of his death. Douglas Chandor's version, painted in March of 1945, is one of the most unusual portraits because the artist chose to paint his hand gestures.



The portrait by Elizabeth Shoumatoff was started a few days prior to FDR's death (12 April 1945) but never finished.




Several artists created images of President John F. Kennedy, including collages by Robert Rauschenberg.



This JFK portrait by Elaine de Kooning is amazing! Saw her works in 2017on display at Palm Springs Art Museum.










Aaron Shikler's portrait of JFK was painted posthumously.










While visiting the Ronald Reagan Library in 2018, I saw this amazing montage of President Reagan painted by Norman Rockwell.










Simmie Knox's portrait of President Bill Clinton is the first portrait commissioned by an African-American artist. Another beautiful artwork is Kehinde Wiley's portrait of former President Barack Obama.










Slightly out of presidential order is the portrait of President George W. Bush by John Howard Sanden.
I saved Dubya for last because I am in awe of his prolific paintings, which include 66 portraits of veterans. See the book, entitled Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief's Tribute to America's Warriors.

Not only was he a great president, but he is a wonderful and prolific artist.






Besides President Bush the Younger, President Ulysses S. Grant was an accomplished landscape painter, Dwight Eisenhauer painted portraits later in life, and even Jimmy Carter dabbled in the visual arts.

Contemporary American oil painter, Andy Thomas of Carthage, Mo. has painted a couple of fantasy group portraits of presidents from each party hanging out together. In them, he tips his hat to an anonymous future female president.