Woodrow Wilson (Orpen portrait)

What it is

This is an oil portrait of Woodrow Wilson by the painter William Orpen, signed 'Orpen Paris 1919' in the lower right. It shows an older man with gray hair and wire-rimmed glasses, seated with one hand resting on the arm of a chair. He wears a dark suit, a white shirt and a patterned gray tie, against a pale draped curtain. The painting is held by the White House. The curator's note says it was painted from sittings during the Paris Peace Conference.

Why it matters

The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 produced the Treaty of Versailles, and Wilson was one of its central figures. Because the portrait was painted from sittings during that conference, it records how Wilson appeared to an artist at the moment he was negotiating the peace. Official portraits like this one show how leaders wanted to be seen by later generations.

Look closer

• What mood does the pose and the plain background create, and what does it suggest about the sitter?
• Why might the artist have chosen to paint Wilson in Paris rather than in America?
• What does a single portrait leave out about the conference and the people who negotiated it?