President Barack Obama (2018) by Helen Betts

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16-Feb-2019

President Barack Obama (2018)

After touring the orchid exhibit we decided to visit the National Portrait Gallery’s hall of US presidential portraits, specifically this one of former President Barack Obama, painted by Kehinde Wiley, oil on canvas, 2018. It has garnered a huge amount of attention, and the line to see it up close was enormous, so I just photographed it from the side.

No other portraits in the entire hall had people lined up in front of them. There was no portrait of Trump, which saved me the trouble of not photographing it.

For an interesting article about this and the portrait of Michelle Obama and how the number of visitors to the museum has skyrocketed since their installation, see http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/where-are-the-obamas-paintings-of-barack-and-michelle-brought-a-million-more-people-to-portrait-gallery/2019/02/26/53ad876e-3543-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html?utm_term=.e29660f4f03b&wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1

Best to view in "Original" because other versions resized by Pbase are decidedly unsharp.

The orchid tree, posted earlier:

Nikon D850 ,Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
1/200s f/5.6 at 42.0mm iso5000 hide exif

Full EXIF Info
Date/Time	16-Feb-2019 14:29:32
Make	Nikon
Model	NIKON D850
Flash Used	No
Focal Length	42 mm
Exposure Time	1/200 sec
Aperture	f/5.6
ISO Equivalent	5000
Exposure Bias	-0.67
White Balance	0
Metering Mode	matrix (5)
JPEG Quality	(7)
Exposure Program	aperture priority (3)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium large original auto

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Wim Ensie		09-Feb-2020 10:29
A wonderful painting of this fine man with all these leaves and flowers. Superb and all is so different now.

Zoltán Balogh		05-Feb-2020 08:06
It's a great portrait of Obama. V

Nestor Derkach		03-Feb-2020 20:03
That is a very nice portrait of President Obama. The artist did a very nice Portrait. Vote

FrankB		03-Feb-2020 16:01
Interesting shot of the old boss....though I was no fan "professionally", I would have liked to have gone bass fishing with him....or sling a few beers and shoot the ....er uh...chew the fat! :-) V+

Mairéad		22-Mar-2019 20:34
I really like this - how it has captured his direct gaze. And those flowers..... Not surprised it's popular, although I'm sure that's as much a reflection on the man as the painting.

Graeme		03-Mar-2019 11:05
A fine portrait of him, Helen.V

Ton T.		27-Feb-2019 18:21
A fantastic image of this fascinating portrait of this respectable man! V

Julie Oldfield		27-Feb-2019 00:35
Love this! It’s interesting that in many of the urban schools in Rochester (I see kids at school for my job) still have portraits of Obama and Biden up but not Trump.

joseantonio		26-Feb-2019 05:18
it´s a nice portrait and you captured it so nicely.V.

Nick Paoni		26-Feb-2019 03:54
What a riveting portrait.

Jeff Real		26-Feb-2019 02:45
You got a very nice shot of it. I wonder what he thinks of his portrait. It is an interesting one. V

Gill Kopy		26-Feb-2019 02:14
We saw this on the news. I have to say I preferred the portrait of Michelle O. You sure got a good shot of this one tho'. V

janescottcumming		26-Feb-2019 01:52
An unusual presidential portrait but a good one in my opinion. Relaxed looking and surrounded by the natural beauty of the green earth. I got a kick out out David's comment. V

bill friedlander		26-Feb-2019 00:15
Nice crisp shot of this decent man. V

globalgadabout		25-Feb-2019 23:41
encouraging people lined up for a painting of an intelligent president...like the green setting too...DT would probably best be pictured at a McDonalds with half a dozen burgers in his paws..

Wim Ensie		25-Feb-2019 23:29
Don't mind where you stay, he looks at you and us. wonderful!!!