President Bill Clinton’s Official Portrait Has Monica Lewinsky Reference Embedded In It [Video]
Nelson Shanks is an artist who got the incredible opportunity to paint former President Bill Clinton's official presidential portrait for the National Gallery of Art.
That's quite an honor. So, naturally he decided to stick it to Clinton.
Shanks says he secretly hid a reference to Monica Lewinsky in the painting, CBS News reported. Lewinsky is a former White House intern with whom Clinton admitted to having an "inappropriate relationship" with in the mid-1990s.
In the portrait, there is a strange shadow on the wall next to Clinton that Shanks says is in the shape of a dress. Nelson says when he was painting the room, he even put a blue dress like Lewinsky's on a mannequin, and painted its shadow.
We are assuming Clinton was not in the room by that point.
"The reality is (Clinton's) probably the most famous liar of all time. He and his administration did some very good things, of course, but I could never get this Monica thing completely out of my mind and subtly incorporated it," Nelson told CBS News.
Nelson said the Clintons knew Lewinsky reference, and have tried to get the painting removed from National Gallery of Art.
However, National Gallery of Art officials told CBS News that claim is untrue. The gallery is not currently showing the portrait because there are other Clinton paintings in its collection on display.
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