ADDED: "Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before."
I don't think the artist painted that badly on purpose, though perhaps she felt freer to exhibit her limitations. It reminds me of all the many portraits of 18th century Americans you see strewn about the walls of lesser museums. Use AI to redo the clothing and he'll look like a random Framer, rendered by a semi-primitive artisan in the days before photography.
AND: I love Trump's "even I, perhaps, have never seen before." What's up with the "even I"? Is he saying that he's seen more bad art than maybe anybody else ever? That's how it sounds.
Posts
46 comments:
Trump should just go all Churchill on it and burn it.
It looks cartoonist.
He's not orange enough.
The things newspapers decide to publish! History is being made all around them, and the NYP chooses this story to pursue. It's somewhat baffling.
Not bad for paint-by-numbers.
"Boardman told the newspaper at the time it was important to her that both Trump and Obama appeared apolitical in her paintings ... "
Is there a color or a brush or a media that makes a painting look "apolitical"?
I don’t suspect the State of Colorado will do anything Trump asks.
It looks like Lou Dobbs lol
It echoes Ecce Homo post crazy lady…
Trump should just go all Churchill on it and burn it.
…a Hawaiian judge would order the painting to be reconstituted from the ashes..
Hmmmm.....amateurish at best. Looks like it was done by a third-year art student.
I think it makes him look younger than he looked at that time. But it also makes him look fatter. I would not describe it as a flattering portrait.
I think it's pretty realistic. The artist didn't paint with photographic precision but she did capture the genuine look of her subject. (I'm glad that the photograph hasn't completely displaced these paintings.)
It's terrible...it doesn't even look like him, but I am NOT surprised.
EXACTLY Dan from Madison. I agree!!!
Distract distract distract from the hard news cycle...
Reminds me of the "Frasier" episode where a Seattle restaurant did a caricature of Frasier to add to ones of other local celebs. Frasier didn't like it which led to all sorts of comic results.
Obama’s is the only one that looks close to realistic. Clinton’s looks like more like a boy, and both Bush and Trump look puffy-faced (and somewhat boyish, too).
Was an animator for The Simpsons hired to do these?
When I only see a time/date stamp, is that a post that has been deleted by its author?
This sort of pettiness makes DJT look bad. A soaring eagle doesn't (or shouldn't) care about the buzzing flies below it. DJT's massive self-regard is going to be his undoing if he isn't careful.
DJT's massive self-regard is going to be his undoing if he isn't careful.
Yeah. Obviously it hasn't done him much good so far. (sarc)
Yeah. Obviously it hasn't done him much good so far. (sarc)
It’s amazing to me…they must believe as it’s coming out of them that this counts as pithy commentary. Don’t destroy your potential with crass statements Donald!!! Yeesh…
In some ways it resembles Melania's father, Viktor Knavs.
Maybe it gets better the closer you get.
None of you commenting upthread sees that he’s warning Colorado that they’re next? Colorado politicians gave free rein* to Tren de Argua in Aurora at the same time as the Democrats are trying to grab the guns of law-abiding citizens in defiance of Bruen. Time to bring Colorado in line.
___________
* I was watching for Autocorrect to change this to the word for liquid precipitation, but mirable dictu! It didn’t.
Disparity of Cult said...
“In some ways it resembles Melania's father, Viktor Knavs.”
They say a woman’s husband will strongly resemble her father, and a man’s wife will strongly resemble his mother.
Put the portraits alongside the official Presidential photographs, and it's pretty apparent the Trump portrait is substandard. It looks as much like President McKinley as it does Trump.
Progressive liberals don't recognize that they're losing these types of arguments. When Trump points out cheap shots and slights, they would like to imagine that it makes him look petty and churlish, instead of them. He's made many of these observations in the court of Public Opinion, and the voting public is coming down on his side, now - even as they may wish he would stop, they recognize he has a point.
Trump looks like a football coach.
It's not terrible, and not distorted in a way that seems deliberately insulting. But it's not great, and it is somewhat inferior to the Obama portrait next to it. I think the artist may just be working off official photographs, though, and some lighting, particularly the kind of frontal lighting favoured for official photo portraits, is somewhat difficult to paint (vs. say, "Rembrandt lighting" which creates lots of big, clear shadow areas that help delineate the form).
MadisonMan said...
When I only see a time/date stamp, is that a post that has been deleted by its author?
3/24/25, 7:56 AM
——————————
Sort of. It seems to be spam that the spam filter, for some reason, only partially deletes. Google sometimes works in mysterious ways.
when the picture looks worse than the mugshot that tells you everything,
The Colorado GOP raised the funds, selected and paid the local artist. She unveiled her work at a public ceremony back in 2019. Too bad the Trump Foundation didn't contribute for a fancier portrait before it was shut down by New York State. Are there 2 Cleveland portraits in Denver?
The best part about Trump whining about the Colorado portrait is it wasn’t put up by Governor Polis, it was put up by a former Republican state senator who is a Trump supporter — back in 2018
The Real Story Behind Colorado’s ‘Distorted’ Portrait of Trump
https://time.com/7271040/trump-portrait-colorado-state-capitol-polis-grantham-boardman-history-factcheck/
Seen in full light it's not a horrible picture. In many of the images circulating online the portrait isn't properly lit and it looks extremely crude and unappealing.
Michael Corleone in Mario Puzo's "The Godfather"...
“Tom, don't let anybody kid you. It's all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of shit every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They call it business. OK. But it's personal as hell. You know where I learned that from? The Don. My old man. The Godfather. If a bolt of lightning hit a friend of his the old man would take it personal. He took my going into the Marines personal. That's what makes him great. The Great Don. He takes everything personal Like God. He knows every feather that falls from the tail of a sparrow or however the hell it goes? Right? And you know something? Accidents don't happen to people who take accidents as a personal insult.”
Google sometimes works in mysterious ways.
Back when I was a software development manager we had a special name for that. We called it a “bug,” and I would have a discussion with the leaders of the test team that it got out of beta testing when it’s that obvious. However Microsoft under Bill Gates’s leadership conditioned the American public that buggy software is “just one of those things you have to live with.”
The portrait definitely looks off. The eyes in the portrait are brown. Trump’s eyes are blue. Also the face in the portrait appears flattened, that is why it looks so odd.
Get over it, Donnie. No painting of you would look good because you are, you,
"When I only see a time/date stamp, is that a post that has been deleted by its author?"
From my one personal experience with this, I'd say no. I posted something, and sometime later 3 more time/date stamps were underneath it. I did nothing to the original post (I in fact can't delete posts anymore), which remained unmolested.
"However Microsoft under Bill Gates’s leadership conditioned the American public that buggy software is “just one of those things you have to live with.”"
I was (and remain) appalled at this.
Get over it, Donnie. No painting of you would look good because you are, you,
I get the sneaking suspicion your reflection would look far, far worse. Both inside and out.
I've now perused the artist's website, and the portrait of Trump looks better than in the NYP photograph. The likeness is recogniseable. But still not great. I think her monochrome portrait work comes off much better, so I think it's something in her colours on the skintones that isn't quite working. Obama might have worked better than Trump because she had to mix a different palette to capture his darker skintone.
Republicans withdrawing the offending portrait that they paid for with a $10k go fund me campaign. I bet they can get more for it now. Commission Hunter Biden this time?
I can see why Trump is not impressed, his "official" portrait looks like a first year art student creation. The GW Bush and Obama renderings are not so good either.
Hey, George Bush does portraits, he could be commissioned to paint Trump. And I think the Bush 2 portrait is the worst of the three.
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