Jamie Wyeth was only 20 when Jaqueline Kennedy and other relatives of JFK approached the artist about painting the official portrait of the late president. Wyeth demurred, but agreed instead to paint an unofficial portrait—one that would remain in the artist’s private collection until he gifted it to the Museum of Fine Arts in . Save for a four-year stint in the White House—then President Biden requisitioned the portrait for his personal study during his presidency—it has remained there.

The first time I saw Wyeth’s portrait of JFK in person, I was roughly the same age he was when he painted it. My family ventured into the city one night and on a lark, stopped into the MFA. That visit coincided with the museum’s Wyeth retrospective, an exhibit which celebrated N.C. Wyeth, his son Andrew

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