Existing comment:
Collecting the Portraits of American Presidents:
Assembling an outstanding collection of portraits of the American presidents seemed like a daunting task when the National Portrait Gallery opened in 1968. By that year, fully thirty-five presidents had been in office, and many of their life portraits were already in public institutions.
The Gallery has since made a concerted effort to acquire a portrait of each sitting president. In 1968, Peter Hurd donated his portrait of Lyndon Johnson; in 1971 the Gallery purchased Norman Rockwell's portrait of Richard Nixon, made just prior to his 1969 inauguration; Ray Kinstler based his 1987 portrait of Gerald Ford on sketches made in 1977 for the official White House portrait; Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan chose paintings made during their presidency to represent them. Most recently, the Gallery has commissioned the artists selected by George HW Bush and Bill Clinton to paint their portraits for the collection. |