Donald Trump calls for his new official portrait at the National Portrait Gallery

Donald Trump has a new demand. According to information from New York Timesthe American president recently requested the installation of a new official portrait to adorn the corridors of the National Portrait Gallery, where the only public collection of presidential portraits outside the White House has been located since 1968. It has been five years since the current guest of the White House waited for a painting with his likeness to be hung on the walls of the institution based in Washington. It is customary for the portrait of an American president to be installed there when he permanently leaves office. A form of “commemoration of his time at the White House”, indicates the museum.

The Donald Trump case is special. In September 2021, the Republican paid $650,000 to pose four times in front of the painter Ronald Sherr. In the past, the latter has produced portraits of former American presidents, such as George HW Bush and his son George W. Bush. He also painted the faces of former Defense Secretary Colin Powell, former House Speakers John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi, and Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Skip the ad

A portrait summarizing Trump’s two terms

His painting of Donald Trump, which was to be accepted by the National Portrait Gallery in 2022, was ultimately left on the shelf due to the Republican candidate’s participation in the 2024 presidential campaign. In the meantime, the American president has reportedly changed his mind. He would like to pose again for an official portrait summarizing “both its 45^e et 47^e presidential mandates »indicates in a press release Davis Ingle, spokesperson for the White House.

Donald Trump will, however, have to commission this painting from a new artist. Ronald Sherr died of pneumonia in December 2022, aged 70. In a statement addressed to the New York Timesthe painter’s widow confided that the first portrait of Donald Trump, painted in front of the White House, “captured the movement, energy and absolute determination of the American president”.

Also read

The Washington National Opera slams the door of the Kennedy Center after Donald Trump takes over

For its part, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington indicated to the American press that it has not yet been informed of Donald Trump’s request. While waiting for the installation of an official portrait, the museum has hung on the walls of the room dedicated to American presidents a photograph of Donald Trump, standing in front of the Oval Office. Furthermore, the institution is still awaiting the installation of the portrait of its predecessor, Joe Biden, who left office at the beginning of 2025. The identity of the painter who created the portrait of the former Democratic president has not been revealed.