Patterico's Pontifications

12/19/2008

Official Bush Portraits (Updated)

Filed under: Government — DRJ @ 2:01 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

George and Laura Bush’s official portraits were unveiled today. The portraits are more casual than I expected but each captures their personalities. I especially like the close-up of Laura Bush’s portrait in the 4th photo in the gallery at the link.

UPDATE 12/20/2008: These are the Bushes’ official portraits but they will be displayed at the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian. I believe other, more formal, portraits will be given to the White House collection.

— DRJ

8 Responses to “Official Bush Portraits (Updated)”

  1. It’s been many years since I was in DC, but I did go on an East Wing tour. They had Hillary and Bill Clinton’s portrait relatively unprotected and I was impressed no crazies had tampered with it.

    I would bet 20 bucks that someone puts a showprint on Bush’s portrait. I hope they save the real painting and display a print.

    These are pretty good portraits.

    Juan (4cdfb7)

  2. Nice.

    jwarner (0a2a75)

  3. Laura’s is quite beautiful and very evocative of her personality, as far as we in the public who lived in her time know it — calm, gentle, literate. A+ official portrait.

    George’s is just odd. He doesn’t have to be holding an eagle in one hand and a globe in the other but it just doesn’t look like an official Presidential portrait. It’s actually a good portrait of the man but not for the official Presidential one. Have him wearing a suit at least. Also, that’s a weird shirt. Put him in a standard blue oxford dress shirt if you want, or in a double flap pocket cowboy shirt if you want, but I have never seen a mutant hybrid shirt like that before.

    Aplomb (b6fba6)

  4. Shirt…Isn’t that a “Pendelton Shirt”?
    If so, sort of standard “work casual” for the TX back-country.

    Another Drew (efe318)

  5. 3. I agree. Some of the literature I have read about Bush says that he has always been respectful of the position and the white house. He wears a tie/suit almost every day (Clinton often wore jeans at the white house). It seems as though the official portrait would reflect his style of dress a little more accurately.

    truthnjustice (d99227)

  6. Maybe, AD, but it looks funny to me. I see a lot of that style here in Austin (double flap pockets) but not made out of what looks like blue oxford cotton like you would have with dress shirts. Also, I don’t like the way the sleeves are hiking up his arms.

    I mean, he probably did show up for the portrait dressed like that, and did strike that pose and the artist thought it captured his personality best, and I do think it is a pretty good portrait of the guy. He looks open and friendly and down to earth. It’s a good pose and look in a candid photo. It just doesn’t look like an official Presidential portrait to me. They should be wearing a suit, standing by a window holding a pen or leaning on a desk or something. Maybe I’m old fashioned but this is gonna look kind of odd if you were to go through a slideshow of all the earlier ones and get to this one.

    Aplomb (b6fba6)

  7. Changing times…

    Another Drew (efe318)

  8. …and, Pendelton Shirts come in many different fabrics now, where they were always wool before.

    Another Drew (efe318)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0800 secs.