The British artist decried as “truly the worst” by President Donald Trump, after he deemed the portrait she painted of him as “purposefully distorted,” has said the criticism is threatening her livelihood.
The oil painting by Sarah A. Boardman was taken down in March at the request of Colorado Republican leaders, to be replaced by one “that depicts [the President’s] contemporary likeness,” per the state’s Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen. The local politicians had raised more than $10,000 through a GoFundMe account to commission the portrait, which was unveiled in Colorado’s state legislature building in 2019 alongside other likeness of US presidents.
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According to an interview in the Colorado Times Recorder with Boardman at the time of its unveiling, viewers initially found her depiction of the President as “non confrontational” and “thoughtful.” Boardman, who also painted the portrait of former US President Barack Obama for the same building, added in the interview that in her practice she strove to capture the “essence” of a subject.
“Any personal feelings about any subject are not relevant and are left outside the studio per my training to ‘“leave those emotions at the door,”’ she said.
In March, Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform that Boardman’s portrait of Obama was “wonderful”, but “the one [of him] is truly the worst”.
Per the Guardian, the artist said in her first public comments since the criticism that while the President had a right to his opinion, the “additional allegations that I ‘purposefully distorted’ the portrait, and that I ‘must have lost my talent as I got older’ are now directly and negatively impacting my business of over 41 years, which now is in danger of not recovering”.
Boardman won a nationwide “call for artists” by the Colorado state government to paint its official portraits of Obama and Trump. At the unveiling of Trump’s in August 2019, Boardman said she painted in the style of artist Lawrence Williams, who created 43 of the presidential portraits in the state building.
The Associated Press reported that following Trump’s online criticisms, the building staff saw a spike in visitors seeking to take photos with the new portrait.
“I think it looks like him,” Kaylee Williamson, an 18-year-old Trump supporter from Arkansas, told the AP. “I guess he’s smoother than all the other ones. I think it’s fine.”
