Politico reported that the walls of the White House had been stripped of a collection of four paintings created by American painter Norman Rockwell and have been replaced with jumbo pictures of President Joe Biden. According to the report, Politico stated that two persons who had inside knowledge of the affair claimed that the family, the owner of the paintings, had applied to reclaim the paintings. The request was granted just last year.
The paintings, which are from the “so you want to see the President” series containing images of different Americans as well as top government officials waiting their turn at the White House for a meeting with the President, were placed on the walls of the West Wing of the building.
The Paintings
These four paintings by Norman Rockwell are made using a mix of watercolor and black sketches to illustrate individuals ranging from generals to journalists reclining on couches in the White House reception area waiting to see the President. The paintings were given different names to suit what they illustrated with titles like “Beauty and Publicity Man,” “The Press Get a News Flash,” as well as “A Hero is Interviewed.”
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These are not the only Norman paintings that have been displayed in the White House. One of his 1964 paintings, “The Problem We All Live With,” which bordered on the topic of racial integration in schools, showed a young black girl, Ruby Bridges, guarded by white federal marshals as she walked past a wall that had been defaced with racial graffiti was displayed in the White House when Bridges met with President Barack Obama in 2011.
Also, “Working on the Statue of Liberty,” a 1946 oil painting depicting workmen cleaning the torch held by the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, remains the only Norman painting left in the white house. The painting was donated to the permanent art collection of the White House in 1994 by movie director, Steven Spielberg. The painting was moved into the Oval Office last year by President Joe Biden.
Location Of The Painting Through The Years
Norman Rockwell created the painting after his visit to the White House in 1943. Betty Monkman, a former White House chief curator who worked with the White House Arts from 1967 to 2002, while speaking with Politico, explained that the paintings were lent to the White House by the family of the press secretary to Franklin Roosevelt, Steve Early. She noted that the painting was presented to Steve Early after Rockwell made them.
Sources close to the White House have stated that the paintings have been replaced with photographs of the US President, Joe Biden. The paintings were at first displayed in the lower press hallway before being moved to the hallway linking the upper press area and the Roosevelt Room at the Capitol during the tenure of George W. Bush till its ultimate removal by the current president, Joe Biden.