Lines and Colors art blog

Nelson Shanks' Four Justices

Nelson Shanks portrait of women Supreme Court justices: Four Justices
Noted portrait painter Nelson Shanks, who I have written about previously, has recently completed a life size group portrait of four female justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The painting, which is titled Four Justices (no, not The Supremes — grin) will hang in the National Portrait Gallery in D.C. for three years before going to the collection of the collectors who commissioned the work.


Comments

2 responses to “Nelson Shanks' Four Justices”

  1. Minor point but… these are not four sitting female justices. They were never all on the court at the same time, primarily because O’Connor resigned in 2006, well before either Kagan or Sotomayor joined the court. But it’s nonetheless a significant portrait of the only women to have served on the highest court.

    Photo editors routinely refer to images of the rare reunion of living ex-presidents as the “Mount Rushmore” shot. I’m not sure what the equivalent would be called when it’s all women and the Supreme Court.

    1. Thanks, Daniel. Corrected. (And as for names, “The Supremes” doesn’t actually work, either, because they were a trio… Shortage of role models and/or pop culture references here.)