Portraying Presidents

with Philip Kennicott and Carolyn Carr

As the National Portrait Gallery works on its latest commission -- a portrait of former President Donald Trump -- we take a tour through the museum's largest piece of real estate, its America's Presidents exhibition. This episode draws back the curtain on earlier commissions that have drawn controversy and acclaim -- from a presidential portrait of Bill Clinton with a shadow of scandal painted into it, to the Obama portraits that transformed the museum into a pilgrimage site. Director Kim Sajet also digs into the thorny question of how to portray a president's misdeeds. Should a presidential portrait automatically carry a glow of prestige, or should it carry the markers of misconduct? "If you're in the business of showing these paintings," says Washington Post art critic Philip Kennicott, "you want to send people out a little hungry." 

headshots of a man in a dark jacket and a woman in a pink blazer

Philip Kennicott and Carolyn Carr