Posted on 04/25/2006 8:08:39 AM PDT by dead
Bill Clinton has never looked so "hip." This jacket-pulled-back, extended-hip pose of the former president was unveiled last night during a ceremony at the Smithsonian Institution.
In the unconventional creation by artist Nelson Shanks, Clinton bears a passing resemblance to former "Nightline" host Ted Koppel and has a hint of a scowl on his face.
But it was the former president's somewhat unpresidential, somewhat louche stance in the Oval Office that had people talking from Washington to New York...
The painting will hang as part of the newly expanded exhibition "America's Presidents" when the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery opens on July 1 in Washington.
"I have reservations about having a large portrait of me," Clinton said at the unveiling ceremony, where he was joined by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and daughter Chelsea. "If you grew up when I did, portraits were for dead people."
Curator Carolyn Kinder Carr says Clinton appears "intense" and sports a "warm gaze" as if to "greet an unseen visitor."
The other portrait commissioned at the same time features a more-traditional profile of Sen. Clinton striking her best Susan B. Anthony dollar pose.
Sen. Clinton chose Ginny Stanford to paint her portrait - the first time the Portrait Gallery has commissioned that one be painted of the first lady at the same time as the president's.
While many liked Hillary's pose, some of the same people said Bill's "Inside the Beltway" portrait looked very unpresidential.
Carol Baker, 65, a tourist from London, said Clinton's pose looks feminine.
"He looks very effeminate for some reason," she said. "He ought to be wearing a white shirt."
Both paintings were paid for by Clinton's friends.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I think the woman in that portrait is pretty :) But she sure don't look much like Hillie.
"well-hung"
(if he were a hamster; Monica description: "like a thumb")
no barf alert?
He looks like "Kramer" from Seinfeld!
Look at how big the beast is in the foreground and how small the US Capitol is in the back.
That's not the portrait of Hil. They showed it on F&F this morning and it's a profile view.
"If you grew up when I did, portraits were for dead people."
tick, tick, tick.........it's only a matter of time, Bubba.
The grim reaper has been looking over your shoulder for a long time now.
But the painter forgot the `beast's halo.
Great portrait! She does however appear to be covertly scratching another of her annoying Genital Herpes outbreaks with her partially-hidden right hand. (:^*)
Always looks like a shiitehead to me.
I'm having a sweetnut tree removed here shortly. I could cut out enough to make a 10x4 frame. Do you have a spot in mind where you could hang it up?
...and don't forget to put an accent light underneath it.
Geesh!!
When I read "well hung" I thought maybe some cowboys got a rope and ... well.
What a disappointment!!!
Is that Chelsea?
Bubba the Swishy looks thwell.
PIG (er...PING) to return later to steal images from this thread under the cover of darkness...
Just too good to pass up. We need to research the "artiste" who painted THAT one...:)
Has to be a lib. Nobody else could have such a skewed view of reality...
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