July 1, 2009

"It’s a very realistic looking portrait. There are some interesting features that I think people will find unique."

Well, now, I really am curious about this portrait of Mitt Romney. Realistic... and yet interesting, unique features on this man who is often said to be made of plastic.

28 comments:

Wince said...

This is the best coverage I could find. Sorry about the ad.

A.W. said...

not as cheesy as Bill Clinton's portrait at the Yale Law School, but close.

Seriously, if i was ever famous enough to merit a portrait, I would say "okay they got this great new device for making a portrait. its called a camera."

Sheesh.

hdhouse said...

obviously made for hanging at the Bushwood Country Club right along side of Judge Smailings

Laura(southernxyl) said...

"As for my clothes, I have for once put on the dress of my office to do him honour, and because I was ashamed. He mistook MacPhee and me for scullions or stable-boys. In his days, you see, men did not, except for necessity, go about in shapeless sacks of cloth, and drab was not a favourite colour."

That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis

traditionalguy said...

This is PR all the way. A storey that their will be a story later. Like the evening news going to a commerercial.

Mark O said...

"Judge Smailings"?

That's a yellow card.

muddimo said...

Not a very good portrait. His head is at a weird disposition relative to his neck. Even the portrait of the portrait of his wife sitting on the desk/credenza features an odd head-tilt. Unnatural. For most of us a painting could improve on the real thing but maybe not for him.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Seriously, if i was ever famous enough to merit a portrait, I would say "okay they got this great new device for making a portrait. its called a camera."

Photographs fade and decay while an oil painting will last for hundreds of years. In addition the nuances and artistic interpretations added by the artist give a portrait additional layers.

So you can have a photo that will not last or a work of art that will. Personally, I would take the work of art.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Not that I'm saying that THIS particular painting is a great work of art: since I can't really see it.

Ann Althouse said...

@EDH Thanks.

What a bad portrait! Made him look like Buddy Ebsen! And the hands are painted that distinctive way that bad artists always paint hands.

I guess the "unique feature" was the inclusion of the picture-in-picture — "his wife Ann."

Why do I feel the need to note that he has not cheated on her?

A.W. said...

"Why do I feel the need to note that he has not cheated on her?"

Personally i would add "as far as we know." sheesh at this rate we are going to find out there was a massive orgy at the capital last weekend, with everyone involved.

save_the_rustbelt said...

It looks like Lyle Wagoner, the big hunky guy who was in Carol Burnett's tv troupe.

Or maybe the shot of the Principal in the high school yearbook.

Just another bored rich white guy using politics for recreation, allowing him to lord over the riff-raff.

The GOP is in big trouble.

save_the_rustbelt said...

It looks like Lyle Wagoner, the big hunky guy who was in Carol Burnett's tv troupe.

Or maybe the shot of the Principal in the high school yearbook.

Just another bored rich white guy using politics for recreation, allowing him to lord over the riff-raff.

The GOP is in big trouble.

Joe said...

Finally found some actually pictures of the portrait. It's horrible. It doesn't look like him and my eyes kept going to the awful hands.

kjbe said...

What's with the frame behind his head? What an on background.

Invisible Man said...

That'll show him to mess with Taxachussets!

Jeremy said...

He appears to be as popular with those in MA as he was with the national electorate.

They also think he's a two-faced, flip-flopping loser.

Jeremy said...

http://wonkette.com/409596/official-romney-portrait-unveiled

Cedarford said...

Romney - decent guy. Like Althouse, I'd be shocked if Mitt was ever caught fooling around.

He is also one of the few I'd trust to make a good effort at reversing America's rapid decline under corruption and usurpation of Democracy by the Ruling Elites.

Obama doesn't seem to be that man.

traditionalguy said...

Palin will have no trouble with the Romney and the Romnoids. This guy looks like a re-incarnated Richard Nixon in waiting.

Anonymous said...

Having met Mitt Romney in person, I can tell you he does, indeed, look very realistic.

Invisible Man said...

He is also one of the few I'd trust to make a good effort at reversing America's rapid decline under corruption and usurpation of Democracy by the Ruling Elites.

Of course, a man who made millions as a leveraged buyout artist would be the most likely person to deal with the "Elites" and "corruption".

Balfegor said...

Re: http://wonkette.com/409596/official-romney-portrait-unveiled

He looks kind of like a merge between himself and his father there. A technically well-finished portrait (something, I suppose, to be grateful for -- it at least bears some resemblance to its subject), but the underlying pose of the body seems to have been imperfectly handled. Could have done with a free-er, more relaxed structure for the body, especially if the artist was going to make him sit on the desk, rather than on a chair like a normal person.

Jeremy said...

Invisible Man said..."Of course, a man who made millions as a leveraged buyout artist would be the most likely person to deal with the "Elites" and "corruption"."

You don't really think Cedarford actually knows anything about Romney, do you?

This is nothing more than a wingnut knee jerk Obama bash comment.

They're automatic, regardless of the topic at hand.

Jeremy said...

Bal - "Could have done with a free-er, more relaxed structure for the body..."

Ya think?

He looks like he's sitting on someone's thumb.

Balfegor said...

He looks like he's sitting on someone's thumb.

I wouldn't have put it in quite those terms, but it's a problem I always struggle with when I doodle/paint -- if I do a sketch or painting or whatever mostly by focusing on a series of isolated detail points (e.g. do the face, then fill in the ears, then draw down the neck, do up the hands etc. etc.), I find I have a tendency to line the pieces up in that somewhat stiff and unnatural way. It's hard (for me at least) to take a large empty space and mentally keep track of the naturalistic arrangement of figure and detail without actually plotting out a naturalistic arrangement of figure and detail first, e.g. with a charcoal drawing or an underpainting or something. My technical skills at rendering subjects in painting fall far short of this particular portrait artist's, but I think that may be the trap he fell into.

That, or Romney's native stiffness carried straight over into the portrait itself. I suppose.

Ralph L said...

What's with the frame behind his head?
Barry gets a halo, Mitt gets (is) a square.

hdhouse said...

Ann Althouse said...
"Why do I feel the need to note that he has not cheated on her?"

I'm sure that the thought never ever entered his head...like all men.

I bet he goes for hours without thinking about sex.