The artist behind a portrait of Donald Trump in the Colorado State Capitol says her career could be in tatters now that the president has besmirched it on social media.
Sarah Boardman’s painting of the president had hung in the Denver building for six years before Trump called it “purposefully distorted” and “truly the worst” on his Truth Social platform in January, prompting state lawmakers to yank it off the wall.
Now the artist’s 41-year career “is in danger of not recovering” from the backlash, Boardman said in a statement on her website on Saturday.
“For the 6 years that the portrait hung in the Colorado State Capitol Building Rotunda, I received overwhelmingly positive reviews and feedback,” Boardman said. “Since President Trump’s comments, that has changed for the worst.”
It was Colorado Republicans who had actually raised more than $10,000 through a GoFundMe account to commission the oil painting during Trump’s first term in 2019.
But the president now says he would rather have no portrait at all than Boardman’s work hanging up, comparing it to a nearby portrait of former President Barack Obama, who Trump said “looks wonderful.
“Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the state Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before,” Trump wrote.
Boardman countered in her statement, “I completed the portrait accurately, without ‘purposeful distortion,’ political bias, or any attempt to caricature the subject, actual or implied. I fulfilled the task per my contract.”
Colorado Democrats who are in charge of the legislature eventually agreed to take the painting down at the request of local Republican leaders.
In addition to blasting Boardman, Trump ripped Democratic Gov. Jared Polis for allowing the allegedly atrocious artwork to be hung, writing, “Jared should be ashamed of himself!”
A rep for Polis responded that the governor’s office is not in charge of the decor at the site but
thanked the president for his “interest in our capitol building,” adding that they “are always looking for any opportunity to improve our visitor experience.”
The controversy drew a stream of tourists wanting to catch a glimpse of the artwork before it was put into storage.
“Honestly, he looks a little chubby,” Trump voter Aron Howe said of the portrait. “[But it’s] better than I could do.”
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