MUSE AND MAKER

The painter Kate Capshaw, known for her intimate likenesses, could hardly say no when the National Portrait Gallery commissioned one of Steven Spielberg, her husband of more than 30 years

- -NATE FREEMAN

MARRIAGE OF MINDS Kate Capshaw in her studio with her portrait of Steven Spielberg, The Picture Maker.

In 2016, seven years after beginning her visual art studies, Kate Capshaw began working with youth organi- zations to paint the portraits of unhoused young people. She arrived at shelters with food and water, listening to them describe their lives as she worked. The resulting series, "Unac- companied," hung at the Hope Center in Los Angeles. At the National Portrait Gallery, director Kim Sajet and curator Dorothy Moss took notice. She reportedly urged Capshaw to apply for a portraiture award, and after she placed as a finalist, the NPG temporarily hosted three works from “Unaccompanied.” (In May, amid sweeping changes to the Smithsonian, which houses the NPG, President Trump posted to social media that he was "terminating" Sajet's employment due to, he claimed, her support of DEI. Sajet stepped down from her position in June.)