PORTRAITS OF POWER

It is the hour of the predator, as the Italian author Giuliano da Empoli puts it, and Trump has been declaring wars left and right: trade war, culture war, war on immigration, to name a few

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There is a peculiarly American tradition of commissioning official painted portraits of each president.

The National Portrait Gallery in Washington handles the commissioning and display, guided by the rule that no painting may be displayed until after the individual’s time in the White House is up. This means that the last oil painting currently hanging in the museum’s signature exhibition, “America’s Presidents,” depicts Barack Obama. Joe Biden’s official portrait has yet to be unveiled, while Donald Trump, who recently began his second, non-consecutive presidency, is represented in photographs.

Trump’s portrait, taken in 2017 by Washington Post photographer Matt McClain, is a dramatic chiaroscuro with seemingly supernatural light illuminating golden hair, a white shirt, and a vermilion tie framed by a black suit that almost blends into the background. The shadowy vignette draws the eye toward Trump’s piercing gaze, which blends authority with intimidation. He is, if the portrait is to be believed, the “chosen one” — a leader not to be challenged.

The spirit of McClain’s portrait is perfectly aligned with the White House website’s official image of the president: an intense close-up, in which Trump glares directly into the camera lens, chin down, one eye narrowed, mouth curled into a frown veering toward a sneer. It also bears some resemblance to another photo, taken for Time magazine in 2019 by Pari Dukovic, which the National Portrait Gallery installed temporarily around Trump’s second inauguration (January 13-February 11), though this one also stands out in key ways.