Former US President Barack Obama reacts during the unveiling of his and former first lady Michelle Obama's official White House portraits, painted by Robert McCurdy and Sharon Sprung, respectively, in the East Room of the White House, in Washington, on September, 7, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
WASHINGTON: Barack Obama and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, returned to the White House on Wednesday for the unveiling of their official portraits, hosted by fellow Democrat Joe Biden more than five years after the former president left office.
Artist Robert McCurdy put the grey-suited ex-president at the center of his canvas, in a photorealistic portrait with a white background that recalls previous portraits he did of Toni Morrison and Nelson Mandela.
The former first lady is pictured in a blue dress in the White House's Red Room, in a painting by Brooklyn artist Sharon Sprung.
"There are few people I have known with more integrity, more decency and more courage than Barack Obama," Biden told the unveiling ceremony in the East Room. "Nothing could have prepared more for being president of the United States than being by your side for eight years."
Large, formal portraits of US presidents and first ladies adorn walls, hallways and rooms throughout the White House.
Customarily, a former president returns for the unveiling during his successor's tenure, but Republican President Donald Trump's administration did not hold a ceremony for the Obamas.
Trump, before winning the 2016 election and succeeding Obama, was a longtime proponent of the "birther" movement that falsely suggested Obama was not born in the United States and should not be president.
Obama thanked Biden, his vice president between 2009 and 2017, for building on the work they did together.
"Thanks to your decency and thanks to your strength, maybe most of all thanks to your faith in our democracy and the American people, the country’s better off than when you took office and we should all be deeply grateful to you for that,” Obama said.
He also thanked his former staff, many of whom are now working at the White House with Biden, and were at the East Room ceremony, but noted no one had named a child 'Barack' yet.
White House Historical Association president Stewart McLaurin said there was no prescribed process for presidential portraits. "It's really up to the current president in the White House and the former president that is portrayed in the portrait to determine the right moment, but there is no set timeline," he said.
Earlier portraits of the Obamas that were unveiled in 2018 and placed in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington have become a major tourist draw.
Biden and his wife, Jill, were close to the Obamas during the Obama presidency, as they managed their political and personal lives, including the death of Biden's son, Beau, from cancer.
Obama has been back at the White House once since leaving office, joining Biden in April for an event to tout his signature healthcare law, known as Obamacare.
