Art for the White House: A Changing Portrait of America

Released in celebration of America's 250th year, Art for the White House: A Changing Portrait of America by Leslie Greene Bowman, presents a wholly new perspective on the White House fine arts collection, revealing how all two-hundred and fifty years of America’s history can be told through the collection. Bowman begins with the story of how the collection was created—slowly and cautiously—as our young nation was eager to distinguish itself from artwork that could be associated with the patronage and luxuries of European monarchs.

The very first work of art acquired for the White House was a painting that remains one of the greatest works of art in any collection of American art, George Washington by Gilbert Stuart. This is the painting Dolley Madison saved in 1814 when the British set the White House afire and this painting has presided on the walls of the State Rooms longer than any other work of art. The collection that has ultimately grown to more than 500 paintings, illustrations, and sculptures was slow to develop. After 145 years, with few exceptions, the White House fine arts collection remained an assemblage of presidential portraits. Bowman attributes much of the credit for the ultimate growth of the collection to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy who “made the nation’s history a priority for her expansion of art holdings.” In less than three years, Mrs. Kennedy had transformed the house and art collection. Not only had it doubled in size, it represented the nation’s finest artists and included a variety of subject matter including still lifes, landscapes, history, and genre scenes. In thirty-four months, Jacqueline Kennedy masterminded how to create, structure, and sustain a museum collection within a living house. Her influence continues with every work purchased by the White House Historical Association, the non-profit she founded as a way to raise funds to sustain the continued development, preservation, and publication of the collection.

Bowman continues her narrative thematically through more than two centuries of American history with chapters focused on “Independence Declared,” “The Way West,” “America the Beautiful,” “The Innovators,” and more. The richly illustrated chapters highlight examples from the collection by the greatest masters of American Art including Gilbert Stuart, Charles Bird King, Winslow Homer, Albert Bierstadt, Mary Cassatt, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jacob Lawrence, John Singer Sargent, Roy Lichtenstein and others.

“Through these pages, readers will discover how art records our nation’s history and expresses our nation’s ideals,” explains Stewart D. McLaurin, President of the White House Historical Association. “They will see how art has humanized the White House, connected it to the broader American story, and helped each generation of occupants—and visitors—find meaning in its historic rooms.”


About Leslie Greene Bowman
Leslie Greene Bowman is an author, historian, and president emerita of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, Viriginia. She has devoted her career to art and history museums. After serving as curator of decorative arts and assistant director of exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, she was named director of Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Delaware in 1999. From 2008 to 2023 she was president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello. In addition to numerous articles, Bowman is author of American Arts and Crafts: Virtue in Design, and, with Morrison H. Heckscher, American Rococo, 1750–1775: Elegance in Ornament. She conceived and co-edited the examination of Jefferson’s impact on the arts in Thomas Jefferson at Monticello: Architecture, Landscape, Collections, Books, Food, Wine. Bowman earned her bachelor of philosophy degree at Miami University of Ohio and her master of arts degree in early American culture as a Winterthur Fellow at the University of Delaware. She is a trustee emerita of both the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Association of Art Museum Directors. By presidential appointment, she served on the Committee for the Preservation of the White House under Presidents Biden, Trump, Obama, George W. Bush, and Clinton. Bowman lives in Keswick, Virginia, with her dogs and horses. She travels frequently, especially to Europe. Besides riding, she is fond of biking, hiking, cooking and new adventures.