8 hidden details you may have missed in Barack and Michelle Obama's new White House portraits
Talia Lakritz
- The Obamas revealed their official White House portraits in an unveiling ceremony on Wednesday.
- Barack Obama's hyper-realistic portrait shows his gray hair and creases in his suit.
Robert McCurdy painted President Barack Obama against a plain white background, which was meant to establish a direct relationship between the subject and the viewer.
McCurdy's signature painting style features his subjects against white backgrounds, an aesthetic that stands out among more traditional presidential portraits.
"They have plain white backgrounds, nobody gestures, there are no props, because we're not here to tell the story of the person that's sitting for them. We're here to create an encounter between the viewer and the sitter," McCurdy said in an interview with the White House Historical Association. "The viewer will bring their emotional and historical package to that moment, and it will be different for every single one."
McCurdy's hyper-realistic painting features small details such as the wrinkles in Obama's suit.
"What I love about Robert's work is that he paints people exactly the way they are, for better or worse. He captures every wrinkle on your face, every crease in your shirt," Obama said at the unveiling ceremony at the White House. "You'll note that he refused to hide any of my gray hairs. Refused my request to make my ears smaller. He also talked me out of wearing a tan suit, by the way."
The former president's gray hair is also visible if you look closely.
Presidents often age dramatically while in office.
Sharon Sprung chose to paint Michelle Obama sitting down as opposed to standing up.
"I was going to do her standing to give it a certain dignity, but she doesn't need dignity," Sprung told the White House Historical Association in an interview. "She has so much dignity that I decided to do it sitting."
In the portrait, Michelle wears a blue dress by designer Jason Wu.
Michelle helped put Wu, then a 26-year-old emerging designer, on the map when she enlisted him to design her inaugural gown in 2009. Wu became one of her go-to designers, and also created her inaugural gown in 2013.
She is pictured sitting on a piece of furniture from Red Room of the White House, though she actually sat for her portrait in the Blue Room.
"I had them move furniture from the Red Room to the Blue Room because the light was better," Sprung said.
Sprung added light shining onto Michelle's dress.
"Every little moment in a painting changes something," Sprung said. "I did the dress, and I did a light on the dress, and the whole thing changed."
In both portraits, the Obamas look directly at the viewer.
"The eyes of these portraits, looking directly at the person looking at them, I think that is a very personal engagement," Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association, said in a video released by the Obama Foundation.
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