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Many people may not realise that the White House is a museum, as well as the home of the American president and a place of government business.
Its rooms and hallways contain a heralded collection of furniture, china, statues, and most of all, paintings, both works of art, and depictions of history.
Every president and first lady is commemorated with a portrait, commissioned toward the end of their time in the White House, and hung a few years after they leave.
But Donald Trump, it seems, is not waiting to make sure his face hangs in the White House.
This weekend, the nation learnt through an interview on 60 Minutes that he is already on the wall of his private office.
Mr Trump appears in a fanciful grouping, enjoying cocktails with former presidents from the Republican party. (A teetotaller, his glass contains his favoured Diet Coke.)
The painting, called The Republican Club, is by artist Andy Thomas. He told NBC News that he was shocked to see it hanging in the White House.
Reagan, Nixon, Eisenhower, Lincoln … Trump?
I was pretty gobsmacked, too, given what I know about the building’s carefully curated decor.
The group includes Ronald Reagan, and both presidents Bush. Gerald R. Ford looks over Mr Trump’s shoulder, while Richard M. Nixon sits nearby.
Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and last but not least, Abraham Lincoln, all smile admiringly as Mr Trump beams.
It’s an image that you’d think was a joke, the presidential equivalent of those paintings on black velvet of dogs playing poker. Here in the States, we sometimes call that “art sold by the side of the road”, since vendors set up in tents next to petrol stations or highway exits.
In fact, the grouping is part of a series, according to Mr Thomas, who has painted Republican as well as Democratic presidents playing poker and pool.
And, it’s a copy, since Mr Thomas owns the original.
As Mr Thomas explained to NBC, the print was a gift to Mr Trump from Darrell Issa, a California Republican congressman. Mr Thomas said Mr Trump called to thank him after he received it.
Trump didn’t look this good in the ’90s
And no wonder he’d be pleased.
For one thing, his portrayal is artfully flattering. I met Mr Trump in his youthful prime in the 1990s, and he didn’t look this good back then.
Nor were his television producers able to bring off such glowing good health during his years on The Apprentice, no matter how many filters or camera angles they tried.
On Twitter, the joke was that he’d been painted to look like “a Kennedy with a combover”, and clearly, he has a vision in his head of looking something like this. Think of all the times he’s said that news organizations take terrible photographs of him.
And, Mr Trump isn’t the only dignitary who prefers to see himself painted at his best. There’s a legendary story about Winston Churchill’s displeasure with a portrait by Graham Sutherland, meant to be a tribute from the British Houses of Parliament on his 80th birthday.
The Netflix series The Crown shows Churchill’s rage at the too-accurate painting, although it fudges the circumstances under which it was banished from view.
It was actually Churchill’s wife, Clementine, who ordered it destroyed after his death because her husband disliked it. (A study for it still is in the possession of the National Portrait Gallery.)
White House reflects president who lives there
Since the president gets to choose both the artist and the scene for his official portrait, it’s likely sometime in the 2020s that Mr Trump’s likeness will be at least as flattering as what Mr Thomas has already painted.
Moreover, it’s likely to stand out from the other official portraits, and the other artwork in the White House offices and hallways, just as Mr Trump’s protocol-smashing tenure has been a vivid contrast to the behaviour of other presidents.
I can’t help but think, however, about the famed artists whose work has been displayed in the White House.
They include Gilbert Stuart, famed for his full-length depiction of George Washington and Dolley Payne Madison, the wife of James Madison.
One of my favourites is John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Theodore Roosevelt, which makes the famous Rough Rider look as if he is about to bolt off the canvas.
Among the 45 pictures chosen by the Obamas for the White House were paintings by Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keefe, as well as African-American artists such as Jacob Lawrence and William H. Johnson.
In every way, a White House reflects the president who lives there. And its current occupant apparently enjoys seeing himself on a wall, having a Diet Coke with his predecessors.
At least we won’t be surprised once his official portrait is unveiled.
Micheline Maynard is a journalist and author.
Topics: donald-trump, politics-and-government, government-and-politics, world-politics, united-states
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