American president Donald Trump received a new portrait of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin – while ransacking an existing painting of him as “really the worst”.
The new portrait has not been shown publicly. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described it as a “personal gift”, adding that only Putin himself could disclose more details.
Meanwhile, Trump went to Truth Social to criticize an earlier image of him which was suspended in the Colorado State Capitol building until it was removed on Monday.
The American president paid particular attention to the culture of his image and made the headlines in January by revealing an official portrait which was variously described by criticisms as serious or disturbing.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed the reception of the new works in Moscow, saying that he was asked to transport him to Washington.
He described the work as a painting – a “beautiful portrait” by a “leading Russian artist” – but gave no other criticism. Trump was “clearly touched,” he added.
The gift was confirmed by Peskov, while the American and Russian negotiators sat again for talks in Saudi Arabia as part of Trump’s desire to end the war in Ukraine.
The gift highlights the diplomatic thaw between the two nations after Trump’s return to the White House in January.
In an interview, Witkoff – who met Putin 10 days ago – said that the Russian president had been “graceful”. Putin told him, he added, that he prayed for Trump after an assassination attempt against him last year.
This attempt on Trump’s life – which took place during a rally in Pennsylvania – gave birth to the most emblematic image of him ever produced.
Photographer AP Evan Vucci caught the moment when Trump, with a bloody ear, held a provocative fist and told supporters to “fight, fight, fight”. This image was more mythologized by Trump, who used it to decorate the cover of a book.
Trump has not yet publicly commented on the image that was sent by Putin – but he left no doubt about the kind of portrait he loved and did not like when he views the image of Colorado.
The table, which was presented to the building in 2019, was “deliberately distorted to a level that even me, perhaps, I have never seen before,” he wrote on Truth Social Monday morning.
It was not like the representation of the same artist of Barack Obama, wrote Trump. Offering rare praise for his predecessor, Trump said that Obama looked “wonderful” in his own portrait by the same artist, Sarah Boardman, born in English.
Trump would have lost up to 30 lb (13.6 kg) during last year’s presidential campaign. He told journalists that he had been “so busy” that he hadn’t “eaten much”.
The Republican also used the portrait to make a political point – describing the governor of Colorado Jared Polis, a democrat, as “radical” and “extremely weak on crime”.
But the portrait had nothing to do with Polis, underlined the American media. It was rather the result of a crowdfunding campaign that was launched by a republican. The portrait would have been responsible for filling an empty space which had briefly been filled with an image of Vladimir Putin by a joker.
After the backlash, the Colorado House Leadership ordered that the painting be removed on Monday afternoon, according to a spokesperson for the Democrats in the Chamber of Colorado. It will be kept in a secure place “until further notice”.
The BBC contacted MS Boardman to comment. By discussing her work with the Colorado Times Recorder in 2019, she recognized that there would always be anger against a president on one side or the other. It is human nature “.
Another portrait artist told the BBC that he “painted things slightly differently”, but that the presidential portraits were nuanced and that he had sympathy for the artist.
Robert Anderson, who created the official portrait of President George W Bush which is hanging on the National Gallery of American Portraits, said that viewers tended to bring “luggage” according to their feelings on the subject of painting.
For this reason, the reaction to a work of art often had “very little to do with the quality of art,” he said.
From Trump, Mr. Anderson said: “I think it would be very difficult to paint him because he has a particular impression of himself which could be very different from that of many others – probably at least half of the country.”
A Polis spokesman told 9news that the governor had been “surprised to learn that the President of the United States was an aficionado of our Colorado State Capitol and his works”.
The press release continued: “We appreciate everyone’s interest in our Capitol building and are always looking for any opportunity to improve our experience of visitors.”
