Paint on canvas, a cracked glass negative, a wall of green leaves. These are the pictures that fixed how a president is remembered.
1Healy's 'The Peacemakers' LincolnGeorge Healy's 1868 painting of Lincoln listening to his generals aboard the River Queen.1000pts
2Kempton's Harry TrumanGreta Kempton's official portrait of a president who wanted to look like a bank manager.1000pts
3Lincoln's Cracked-Plate PortraitAlexander Gardner's 1865 photograph, the glass negative split across Lincoln's forehead.764pts
4Sargent's Theodore RooseveltJohn Singer Sargent's 1903 White House portrait, painted with Roosevelt gripping a staircase newel.764pts
5The Lansdowne WashingtonGilbert Stuart's full-length 1796 Washington, the template for how a president should stand.647pts
6The Athenaeum WashingtonStuart's unfinished 1796 head study — the face on every one-dollar bill since.647pts
7Brady's Cooper Union LincolnMathew Brady's 1860 studio photograph, credited by Lincoln himself with helping elect him.647pts
8Rembrandt Peale's JeffersonThe 1800 portrait that fixed Jefferson's image for two centuries of textbooks.647pts
9Shikler's John F. KennedyAaron Shikler's posthumous portrait of a president with his arms folded and his head down.647pts
10The Great Seal WashingtonThe profile Washington used on coins and seals, taken from Jean-Antoine Houdon's life mask.647pts
11FDR's Unfinished PortraitElizabeth Shoumatoff's watercolour, abandoned mid-sitting when Roosevelt collapsed in April 1945.503pts
12Peale's Washington at PrincetonCharles Willson Peale's 1779 general, painted from life while the war was still being lost.503pts
13Grant at City PointMathew Brady's 1864 photograph of the general leaning against a tree, hat pushed back.503pts
14Earl's Andrew JacksonRalph E. W. Earl's portraits of Old Hickory, painted by an artist who lived in the White House.503pts
15Wiley's Barack ObamaKehinde Wiley's 2018 National Portrait Gallery painting, the sitter set in a wall of foliage.0pts
16Lincoln and Tad, 1865Gardner's February 1865 photograph of the president reading with his youngest son.0pts
Comments 1
Gilbert Stuart's 1796 pose fixed how an American president gets painted, and the rival image is a glass negative cracked above the forehead: https://youpick.best/articles/washington-vs-lincoln-ranked
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