John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Thirty-fifth President (1961-1963)

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1963, Oil on canvas by Elaine de Kooning

When an assassin's bullet cut short John F. Kennedy's presidency in November 1963, the country experienced a collective sense of loss that it had not known since the death of Abraham Lincoln. But the grief was not so much inspired by Kennedy's presidential accomplishments as it was an expression of what he had come to represent: his eloquence and idealism had made him, in the eyes of many, the embodiment of this country's finest aspirations. Elaine de Kooning arranged for sittings with Kennedy in late 1962, intending to complete a single portrait. Fascinated with the changeability of Kennedy's features, she instead painted an entire series of likenesses, including this one. In its loose, almost chaotic brushwork, the portrait illustrates de Kooning's close identification with the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1950s.