Here are some of the official presidential portraits from the White House Collection. The artist and date of creation is included.

Gilbert Stuart created many portraits of President Washington, including the portrait on the one dollar bill. This portrait of Washington was saved from the burning White House by First Lady Dolly Madison and Paul Jennings, one of President Madison's slaves.

Rembrandt Peale painted this portrait of Thomas Jefferson while he was Vice President for the second U.S. President, John Adams.

John Vanderlyn was a protege of Aaron Burr. Burr sent Vanderlyn to study in Paris and allowed him to live in his home while he painted portraits of Burr and his daughter.

George Peter Alexander Healey painted the portraits of the great men of his day. This portrait of Lincoln was done posthumously and shows a thoughtful Lincoln. A year earlier, Healey created a famous scene of with Lincoln listening to

military leaders as they considered the post Civil War Era. The painting is called The Peacemakers.

Ulysses S. Grant left the White House after serving two full terms. This portrait was done in the late 1880's after his death due to cancer in 1885 at age 63. In his last year, he worked feverishly on his memoirs and wrote magazine articles to help his family financially. The artist for his portrait remains unknown.

John Singer Sargent was being shown around the White House by President Roosevelt. Roosevelt was a bit impatient at the moment, and while standing the the base of a stairway, placed his hand on the banister and turned. Sargent told TR to hold his pose.

Anders Zorn was Sweden's greatest artist. He painted portraits of three American Presidents: Grover Cleveland, William Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery has paintings by Milford Zornes, a famous WPA watercolorist who, according to his daughter, kept prints of Anders Zorn paintings in his studio and believed himself to be related to the great Swedish painter.

Stephen Seymour Thomas is included in Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery's Collection. He painted three portraits of Woodrow Wilson. When WW I broke out, Thomas left Paris where he had met and married his wife and settled in La Crescenta north of Los Angeles. In the late 1930's, a young Walt Disney Studios artist moved in next door, Joshua Meador. Thomas befriended the young artist and introduced him to members of LA's artistic community.

Frank Salisbury was known as Britain's Painter Laureate. He was a critic of modern art, especially his contemporaries Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Piet Mondrian. He painted portraits of six U.S. Presidents, and of the world leaders of his day including William Churchill.

Martha Greta Kempton was the official White House artist during the Truman administration. She painted five portraits of Truman, the first being the official portrait. When Truman sat down for this portrait, he was holding a

handful of papers. With respect, Kempton asked the president to lay the papers down and relax while she painted. She always dressed in a formal cocktail dress as she painted, adding to her reputation as one of America's best dressed women.

Anthony Willis was a self taught artist. He worked only in oil and never used canvas, choosing instead to paint on masonite as it does not deteriorate. He did portraits of Henry Kissinger, General George Marshall and three U.S. Presidents: Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. Ike loved painters and painted for a hobby. He kept a closet-studio in the second floor residence, which his aides later said was the most secret place in the White House. While on golf trips, he visited artists and counted them among his personal friends, including Bodega Bay Heritage Artists John W. Hilton and Paul Grimm.

In 1970, Jacqueline Kennedy chose Aaron Shikler to do this posthumous character study of John F. Kennedy. He also did portraits of Jacqueline Kennedy and the Kennedy children. Later, he did the portrait of Nancy Reagan.

Elizabeth Shaumatoff was born in 1888 to an aristocratic family in Russia. In 1917, she accompanied her husband to America where he served as a member of the Russian Purchasing Commission. After the October revolution, the couple asked to remain in the United States. Her talent for portraiture brought commissions from some of the most elite families in America, Britain and Europe. While President Roosevelt was posing for Shaumatoff on a porch in Warm Springs, Georgia, he suffered his stroke.

James Anthony Willis is the same artist who did President Eisenhower's portrait.

Everett Raymond Kinstler painted the official portraits of Presidents Ford and Reagan. He is best known for his "pulp" cover art for western, romance, crime and mystery paperbacks. He also created many book covers and created many book and magazine illustrations. He painted over 1200 portraits of leading people in business, entertainment and politics.

Herbert Abrams did the official portraits for President Carter and George H.W. Bush. During WW II, Abrams worked as a camouflage technician. He trained as a pilot and became a flight instructor. He lived many years in Manhattan after attending the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League. He sold many of his paintings at the Greenwich Village Art Show. He taught at West Point for twenty years beginning in 1953 where he was commissioned to do the portrait of General William Westmoreland. He is the first artist to do a portrait for both a Democratic and a Republican president.

Simmi Knox was the first African American chosen to paint an official portrait for a U.S. president. He was raised by his uncle, a sharecropper who already had eight kids of his own. At age 13, he was hit in the eye during a baseball game. Drawing was suggested as a way to cope with his recovery. Nuns recognized his talent and he pursued his formal art training from a number of institutions, receiving a masters degree from the Tyler School of Art in Pennsylvania. Comedian Bill Cosby helped raise Knox's profile by commissioning him to do portraits for himself and for 12 members of his family. He painted portraits for Mohammed Ali, Justice Thurgood Marshall and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

John Howard Sanden did portraits of President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush. In 1956, he graduated from the Minnesota School of Art. He taught at the Art Students League in New York. From 1955-1970, he served as Art Director for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

And now, a new president has been inaugurated. The portrait below is of a younger Donald Trump. Ralph Wolfe Cowan did this portrait in the 1980's. He's now 85, and after having had difficulties negotiating artistic and financial terms for this previous portrait, he probably won't be painting President Trump's official portrait.

That's when their friendship began. On future golfing trips to Palm Springs, Ike often would go missing for hours. He was over at Hilton's house painting.

Katherine Ainsworth's biography of John W. Hilton, The Man Who Captured Sunshine, chapter 37, records the meeting of Hilton and Eisenhower before Ike became president.

She wrote, "On weekends the Hiltons packed up whatever paintings John managed to turn out during the week and drove over to join other members of the Palm Springs Artist Guild in the outdoor art show on the grass in front of the Desert Inn. While their lives centered about their Twentynine Palms home, they realized that Palm Springs offered the most lucrative sales prospects. "

"One Sunday, John had just finished giving a painting demonstration when a quiet, smiling man drew closer to the picture and reached out to touch the surface and left his fingerprint in the wet paint. The man was overcome with embarrassment and apologized profusely."

"John just laughed and said, 'Think nothing of it, General Eisenhower, that fingerprint makes my picture a collector's item.' They met again at a dinner party at the Cochran-Odlum Ranch a few weeks later. Eisenhower, an amateur painting enthusiast, quizzed John on the technique he used to obtain a certain effect in his paintings."

" 'The General looked a little surprised when I invited him to come out to our place for a painting session,' said Hilton and then added, 'but I guess he wasn't offended because he came several times. I don't think anybody but his driver ever knew where he was.' "

"Painting was quite important to the private side of Dwight Eisenhower. He learned from Winston Churchill that painting was a great way to balance the demands of office. Although Ike never picked up a brush during WW II, after the war, he borrowed his granddaughter's paint set and got hooked."

"As President, he kept a small and very private studio in the second floor White House residence and would steal moments from his schedule to seclude himself and paint."

John's presented Twentynine Palms Oasis at the White House sixty years ago. Four years later, Eisenhower left the White House and his personal belongings were shipped out, including John's painting. After Eisenhower's Death in 1969, Mamie Eisenhower presented Twentynine Palms Oasis to the Eisenhower Memorial Hospital in Palm Desert, California. The painting has since been acquired by a private collection.

Linda Sorensen's Paintings can now be seen at the Bodega Landmark Gallery Collection, the gallery in the inland town of Bodega at the west end of Bodega Highway (Hwy 12), a half block from the Casino, and just across from the General Store and the Bodega Volunteer Fire Department.

Our thanks to Lorenzo De Santis for showing Linda's work and hope you can all stop in and see this wonderful (and renovated) gallery very soon.

Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery is not at present a "brick and mortar" storefront gallery. We've moved out and now exist as an online only gallery, although arrangements can be made to view specific artworks. Please keep in touch with us by phone, email, our website, and our newsletters to keep up on where Linda's artist studio lands, and what new ways we may find to show and celebrate historic California art beyond the website itself.

Soon: a new gallery in our former Highway One space. Pacific Bay Gallery will open next door to The Ren Brown Collection, featuring the work of resident artist Noki Jones. We'll keep you informed about the opening of Pacific Bay Gallery in our newsletter. And we'll also keep you informed about where to acquire the watercolors of Jean Warren and the photographs of Diane Perry.

Bentonville, AR
Crystal Bridges
Museum of American Art