George W. Bush presidential portrait is unveiled. Who paid for it?
President Obama welcomed his predecessor back to the White House on Thursday for the unveiling of the official George W. Bush and Laura Bush portraits. As we watched the two men interact graciously during the event, we could not help but wonder: Where did it come from?
Not the amity. Obama and Bush are members of the presidents鈥� club and have more in common with each other than with the leaders of their respective parties. We mean the picture itself. Who chooses the artists for official presidential portraits, and how? Who pays for the painting 鈥� taxpayers, private citizens, or presidents themselves?
Well, presidents choose their own painters. But it鈥檚 not an easy process. Sometimes things don鈥檛 work out 鈥� Lyndon B. Johnson picked a second artist after the first produced a painting he thought 鈥渦gly鈥� in all ways. And there are many applicants. Portfolios flood into the White House from artists, their agents, galleries, staff members, friends, and family.
During the Clinton administration, Hillary Rodham Clinton reviewed these submissions. The first lady sought advice from the White House curator and the director of the National Portrait Gallery, according to by White House curator emeritus Betty C. Monkman in the journal White House History.
After Clinton won reelection, Mrs. Clinton began interviewing artists, sometimes with the president in tow. Just before leaving office Bill Clinton picked the Alabama-born Simmie Knox to produce his official likeness. After seeing the likeness 鈥� which depicts a rather formal Clinton standing in the Oval Office 鈥� Mrs. Clinton picked Knox for her official first lady portrait as well.
Taxpayers don鈥檛 foot the bill for this art. At least, not all taxpayers do. They鈥檙e paid for via private donations channeled through the nonprofit White House Historical Association.
鈥淲e have for years been underwriting the cost of official presidential portraits,鈥� says Maria Downs, WHCA director of public affairs.
This is a fairly recent phenomenon. Prior to the historical association鈥檚 founding in 1961, there was no organized effort to produce a line of presidential and first lady portraits for the White House itself. Well into the twentieth century the commission of official portraits was a 鈥渉aphazard affair,鈥� according to former curator Ms. Monkman.
In 1800, for instance, Congress allocated $700 to purchase a portrait of the recently deceased George Washington. This paid for what has since become one of the icons of American art, indeed one of the touchstones of American history 鈥� the full-length 鈥淟ansdowne鈥� portrait by Gilbert Stuart.
Four years after Abraham Lincoln鈥檚 death, Congress allocated funds for a Lincoln portrait competition. President Ulysses S. Grant picked the winner: a full-length portrait by Chicago artist William Cogswell. Ironically, today a losing effort from that contest is better known. It鈥檚 the famous portrait of a brooding, sitting Lincoln, produced by another Chicago painter, George P.A. Healey. Bought by Lincoln鈥檚 son Robert Todd, it eventually ended up back in the White House. Today it hangs in the State Dining Room.
Other notable official portraits include John Singer Sargent鈥檚 rendering of Theodore Roosevelt, who appears thrumming with energy, ready to bust from the stairway where he is standing, and Aaron Shikler鈥檚 posthumous painting of John F. Kennedy, his eyes downcast, against a gray background that makes him appear almost a ghost.
Presidential paintings hang at the National Portrait Gallery, and in individual presidential libraries, but it is particularly fitting that the White House itself should have the official collection, William Seale, editor of White House History.
鈥淧ortraits of [presidents] seem to belong there, making windows into that long history,鈥� he writes.
