Finally, a portrait of
President Trump that he actually liked.
In a framed painting captured in the background of a “60 Minutes” interview at the
White House, Mr. Trump sits among Republican presidents from the past century and a half, looking as if he had just made a wisecrack that drew laughter from the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Richard Nixon.
This depiction of Mr. Trump boasts a lean physique and flashy smile. His dazzling white shirt and bold red tie make him the undeniable focal point of the scene.
Andy Thomas, the 61-year-old artist behind the work, said he received a call a few weeks ago from Mr. Trump, who expressed his delight with the painting. He had received a large print as a gift from Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican from California.
“One thing he specifically mentioned was he didn’t usually like portraits of himself,” Mr. Thomas said Tuesday. “But he said that he really liked that one.”
After viewers spotted the whimsical painting on Sunday, when the interview aired, the image and the artist behind it received the burst of news reports and memes that are part of internet life these days.
Mr. Issa, who considers Mr. Thomas a friend, gave Mr. Trump the framed painting this past summer, the congressman’s spokesman said. Mr. Issa has two of Mr. Thomas’s paintings featured in his own office.
In the painting on Mr. Trump’s wall, titled “The Republican Club,” the president — drinking a Diet Coke — sits with a gaggle of past presidents at a private club. Ronald Reagan smiles broadly. Theodore Roosevelt puts his foot on a chair as if he’s in a Wild West saloon. Even Richard Nixon, who resigned in shame, gets a seat and a full glass of red wine.
Mr. Thomas, from Carthage, Mo., said he likes to polish the appearance of his subjects, while still making them look like themselves. Although he was hesitant to speculate on Mr. Trump’s psychology around the painting, he said he expects that the president appreciated holding court with the likes of Lincoln. (Mr. Trump has compared himself to Lincoln in the past.)
Perhaps it made Mr. Trump feel a part of a special clique. “When they first get there, they probably don’t feel like they belong,” Mr. Thomas said.
The White House press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the painting.
Although he leans libertarian, Mr. Thomas said he supports Mr. Trump. But his work doesn’t focus exclusively on Republicans. Aside from three paintings of Republican presidents across history, he has created images of Democratic presidents acting chummy as well.
In “The Democratic Club,” Mr. Thomas painted Barack Obama with a tall glass of beer, sitting among a polo-clad John F. Kennedy, a cigarette-smoking Franklin D. Roosevelt and other Democrats of White Houses past.
Cara A. Finnegan, a professor of communication at the University of Illinois who studies the history of photography and presidential portraiture, said the painting reminded her of other popular prints that use the images of past presidents to bolster the reputations of contemporary ones.
For example, an 1866 print created after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln depicts him being greeted by George Washington as he ascends into heaven.
“The idea is associating the current presidents with mythical presidents of the past,” Ms. Finnegan said.
And a 1902 stereograph, a popular form of photography of the era that gave a three-dimensional effect, shows two girls praying over the portraits of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley, all victims of assassins. The picture was titled, “The Martyred Presidents.”
Another part of the attraction of seeing past presidents side by side, Ms. Finnegan said, is the image of presidential camaraderie. Just recently, a photograph went viral of the living former presidents at Barbara Bush’s funeral, along with their spouses. Mr. Trump did not attend.
Paul Staiti, a professor of fine arts at Mount Holyoke College, compared Mr. Thomas’s painting to the famed series of dogs playing poker by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge. In fact, in two other past paintings of Republicans and Democrats, the former presidents were doing just that.
While it may seem that only some presidents are featured in the painting, Mr. Thomas said that all the Republican presidents in history are squeezed into the frame. Some, like Calvin Coolidge, gaze at the elite group from the background.
Also in the background, Mr. Thomas painted a slightly blurred image of a woman walking toward the table of male politicians. He imagined that as the first Republican woman president, confidently striding over to the boys’ club and asserting herself. (He painted a similar female figure in the Democratic picture.)
The media limelight has been harsh this week, bringing a flood of internet criticism that he said he found meanspirited. Mr. Thomas said he never claimed his art was “high brow.”
On the positive side, people are ordering his prints like crazy.