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Helen Betts | all galleries >> Rediscovering Home >> Washington Rediscovered: Year 4 >> Smithsonian at the Old Patent Office > President Barack Obama (2018)
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16-Feb-2019

President Barack Obama (2018)

After touring the orchid exhibit we decided to visit the National Portrait Gallery’s hall of US presidential portraits, specifically this one of former President Barack Obama, painted by Kehinde Wiley, oil on canvas, 2018. It has garnered a huge amount of attention, and the line to see it up close was enormous, so I just photographed it from the side.

No other portraits in the entire hall had people lined up in front of them. There was no portrait of Trump, which saved me the trouble of not photographing it.

For an interesting article about this and the portrait of Michelle Obama and how the number of visitors to the museum has skyrocketed since their installation, see http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/where-are-the-obamas-paintings-of-barack-and-michelle-brought-a-million-more-people-to-portrait-gallery/2019/02/26/53ad876e-3543-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html?utm_term=.e29660f4f03b&wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1

Best to view in "Original" because other versions resized by Pbase are decidedly unsharp.

The orchid tree, posted earlier:

Nikon D850 ,Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
1/200s f/5.6 at 42.0mm iso5000 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Wim Ensie09-Feb-2020 10:29
A wonderful painting of this fine man with all these leaves and flowers. Superb and all is so different now.
Zoltán Balogh05-Feb-2020 08:06
It's a great portrait of Obama. V
Nestor Derkach03-Feb-2020 20:03
That is a very nice portrait of President Obama.
The artist did a very nice Portrait.
Vote
FrankB03-Feb-2020 16:01
Interesting shot of the old boss....though I was no fan "professionally", I would have liked to have gone bass fishing with him....or sling a few beers and shoot the ....er uh...chew the fat! :-) V+
Mairéad22-Mar-2019 20:34
I really like this - how it has captured his direct gaze. And those flowers.....
Not surprised it's popular, although I'm sure that's as much a reflection on the man as the painting.
Graeme03-Mar-2019 11:05
A fine portrait of him, Helen.V
Ton T.27-Feb-2019 18:21
A fantastic image of this fascinating portrait of this respectable man! V
Julie Oldfield27-Feb-2019 00:35
Love this! It’s interesting that in many of the urban schools in Rochester (I see kids at school for my job) still have portraits of Obama and Biden up but not Trump.
joseantonio26-Feb-2019 05:18
it´s a nice portrait and you captured it so nicely.V.
Nick Paoni26-Feb-2019 03:54
What a riveting portrait.
Jeff Real26-Feb-2019 02:45
You got a very nice shot of it.
I wonder what he thinks of his portrait.
It is an interesting one.
V
Gill Kopy26-Feb-2019 02:14
We saw this on the news. I have to say I preferred the portrait of Michelle O. You sure got a good shot of this one tho'. V
janescottcumming26-Feb-2019 01:52
An unusual presidential portrait but a good one in my opinion. Relaxed looking and surrounded by the natural beauty of the green earth.
I got a kick out out David's comment. V
bill friedlander26-Feb-2019 00:15
Nice crisp shot of this decent man. V
globalgadabout25-Feb-2019 23:41
encouraging people lined up for a painting of an intelligent president...like the green setting too...DT would probably best be pictured at a McDonalds with half a dozen burgers in his paws..
Wim Ensie25-Feb-2019 23:29
Don't mind where you stay, he looks at you and us. wonderful!!!