Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 1921–2009
The National Portrait Gallery was saddened to hear this morning of the passing of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. She was a lifelong advocate of children’s health issues, and is best known for her tireless leadership in the struggle to improve and enhance the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Her life transformed the lives of many others.
Only a few months ago, on May 9, 2009, Eunice Kennedy Shriver was honored at the museum with the unveiling of her portrait. It was the first portrait commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery of an individual who has not served as president or first lady. The portrait is on display on the museum’s second floor rotunda.
Shriver’s portrait was painted by artist David Lenz, winner of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2006. His winning painting, Sam and the Perfect World, portrays his son, an active participant in Special Olympics events. For this commission, Lenz embraced the idea of making a portrait of Shriver that would also include five persons with intellectual disabilities who have been involved in Special Olympics and the Best Buddies program: (left to right) Airika Straka, Katie Meade, Andy Leonard, Loretta Claiborne, and Marty Sheets.
In an interview with NPG curator Brandon Fortune, David Lenz remarked, “Mrs. Shriver’s work has done so much for so many people. It’s truly been, really, a civil rights movement. If you go back just four or five decades ago, people with intellectual disabilities were routinely neglected. They were abused. They were warehoused in institutions, sometimes in deplorable conditions.” He continued, “So the basic arrangement of the painting is, she is leading this group of athletes out of the darkness of the past, and into the light of acceptance, and understanding, and community. . . . Her work is so far-reaching and so profound that it’s kind of like a beautiful circle of light in the sky for everyone to see.”
Read more about Eunice Kennedy Shriver and her portrait by David Lenz, in this article from Smithsonian Magazine.
