Since George Washington, it has been customary for presidents to have an official portrait—usually an oil painting—unveiled shortly after they leave office. That was to be the case for President Donald Trump, who sat for a portrait by artist Ronald Sherr just after leaving office in 2021. There is just one complication: Trump now wants a new one.
Sherr’s portrait was ready to be accepted by the National Portrait Gallery, which maintains the nation’s presidential portraits, in 2022. But by then Trump had already announced his bid for the presidency in 2024. The gallery does not typically hang a presidential portrait until the president has permanently left office, according to the New York Times.
Now, the White House says Trump would like a portrait that reflects the full scope of his time in office. “President Trump was appreciative of the portrait created for his 45th term and looks forward to seeing the completion of a portrait that will encapsulate both his 45th and 47th presidential terms,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement.
The Sherr portrait, completed before the artist’s death in 2022, reportedly depicts Trump at a rally, with the White House in the background. Sherr’s widow, Lois, said the work “captured Trump’s movement, energy, and feeling of absolute resolve.”
Trump was not the first president Sherr painted. The artist also created portraits of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, as well as former Secretary of Defense Colin Powell, former House Speakers John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi, and a forthcoming portrait of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired in 2018.
The National Portrait Gallery told the Times that it was unaware Trump had requested a new portrait.
Meanwhile, the official portrait of Joe Biden, who left office last year, has yet to be unveiled. Biden’s most recent Democratic predecessors were painted by contemporary art stars: Barack Obama by Kehinde Wiley and Bill Clinton by Chuck Close. (Incidentally, both Wiley and Close have since faced allegations of sexual misconduct.)
