Time.news – Sharon Sprung, instructor of the Art Students League of New York, is an old school realist painter. And when she was chosen to make the official portrait of Michelle Obama for the White Househe knew he should keep the secret. What he did not know and imagined, however, was how long he would have to observe the silence.
After the Obamas, Donald Trump took office in the White House and after him, again, Joe Biden. In fact, since the time of the Carter administration, it has been customary for former presidents to return, together with the new tenant on duty, to the residence of the American heads of state, in Washington, for an inauguration ceremony and presentation of their portraits once completed.
However “a ceremony cannot be held in the White House without the approval of the incumbent president. And for the four years of the Trump administration there has been no official presentation ”. It could also be added, given the temperament of the president in office at the time.
However, once Joe Biden took over the Oval Office, “before a ceremony could be scheduled, Covid-19 arrived. So the finished portrait, which Ms Sprung had painted in nine months, after two visits to the White House with Ms Obama – notes the Times – has spent most of the last six years locked up and hidden in his Brooklyn art studio”.
Now the sixty-nine year old artist says: “” Yes, it was maddening, “about how late he was introduced, “but I couldn’t have done otherwise about it anyway.” Last Wednesday, President Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, unveiled the painting at the White House, along with a portrait of former President Barack Obama by the painter Robert McCurdy.
How Sharon Sprung works
The US newspaper notes: “Mrs. Sprung’s work offers a compromise between the Obamas’ desire to innovate and the imperative to respect the aesthetics of the White House”.
Sharon Sprung’s working method is simple: prepares to get to know his subjects during lunch or in a videoconference before spending two or three sessions with them, “photographing, talking, watching,” then Mrs. Sprung “posed Mrs. Obama, moved the furniture in the White House, and consulted with her about skin tone, using a piece of canvas board on which he had painted various shades, ”says The Times.
Finally, Ms. Sprung, after having consulted a series of private photographs of the first lady, “Found a shot of Michelle Obama practicing ballet at the age of 11 or 12 and noticed the same quiet poise and determination that she exemplifies as an adult.” And she began to paint. “And when you start painting them you fall in love with them. And then they come out of your life, ”Sprung concluded.