Sharon Sprung

Sprung started teaching at the Art Student League of New York in 2004.[2] In her classes, she often performs a demonstration in which she finishes a portrait and explains the process over the course of a semester. She encourages students to devote more of their class time looking at the model for their portraits than actually painting, to avoid self-criticism, and refrain from naming individual parts of the subject.[3] She is also a long-time teacher at the National Academy School, and received a Lifetime Achievement award from its museum.[6] Though known primarily as a painter, she also teaches drawing.[6]

In 2004, Sprung was commissioned by the House of Representatives to paint a portrait of Jeannette Rankin. Rankin, a suffragist and the first woman elected to the House in 1917, is depicted holding a newspaper with a story of her being sworn in.[2] Sprung learned what Rankin wore when she was sworn in, rented a costume, hired a model, and found a copy of the newspaper to produce the scene in the painting.[3] Years later, in 2022, she painted the first woman of color in Congress, Patsy Takemoto Mink.[2] Mink's portrait includes colors and shapes inspired by the Pacific Ocean and her home state of Hawaii.[7]

Sprung was commissioned to paint former First Lady Michelle Obama's official White House portrait by the White House Historical Association.[2] She painted it over the course of nine months, facing minor challenges in White House protocol when she wanted to move things around in different rooms to improve the lighting or the scene.[8] The portraits are typically unveiled during the succeeding president's administration, but the Trump administration never held the ceremony for the Obamas, so Sprung kept the completed portrait in her studio.[2] The non-disclosure agreement she signed meant she had to keep it hidden from view for six years until the Bidens held an unveiling in 2022.[8] when it was displayed alongside a painting of Barack Obama by Robert McCurdy.[2] At the event, the former president thanked Sprung for "capturing everything I love about Michelle, her grace, her intelligence -- and the fact that she's fine".[9]

The portrait depicts Obama sitting on a red sofa in the Red Room of the White House, wearing a turquoise off-the-shoulder dress designed by Jason Wu, who designed several garments for her in the past.[5] Sprung based the painting on several photographs.[5] According to Maegan Vazquez of CNN, the portrait shows Obama "appearing to take a brief moment to get comfortable inside one of the most formal rooms in the White House".[5] Vazquez also noted that it was the first time such a portrait depicted someone in a strapless dress.[5] Dan Kois of Slate said the portrait "pays tribute to the past while pulling presidential portraiture gently into the 21st century" and praised the gilded frame.[10] Will Heinrich of the New York Times compared the portrait to those by other artists, noting the way Sprung's work "is a reminder that oil paint remains the best technology for really looking at someone" and presents a "compromise between the Obamas' desire to innovate and the imperative to respect the White House aesthetic".[2]