President Donald Trump criticized a portrait of him that is hanging in the Colorado Capitol, calling it “purposefully distorted” and “truly the worst.” He’s not the first president to feel this way. Screengrab from Donald J. Trump on Truth Social

President Donald Trump denounced a painting of himself that hangs in the Colorado State Capitol, labeling it “truly the worst.” But he’s not the first president to feel betrayed by a painter’s brush.

“Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before,” Trump wrote in a March 23 post on Truth Social.

“The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one on me is truly the worst,” he said.

Sarah Boardman was commissioned to paint the portrait for the state Capitol in 2019, according to the Colorado Times Recorder. She described it as “thoughtful” and “non-confrontational.”

In follow-up posts, Trump shared two images of himself — which he apparently considered more acceptable.

A handful of past presidents have also taken issue with their portraits, some of whom commissioned replacements.

Presidents who disliked their portraits

In 1902, French artist Théobald Chartran was commissioned to produce a portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt after he painted first lady Edith Carow Roosevelt. But the outcome was far from satisfactory.

It “was difficult to get the President to sit still,” Chartan said at the time, according to The New York Times. “I never had a more restless or more charming sitter.”

He added that he “did not try to depict the official Roosevelt, but rather the private man.”

When the president saw the finished product, he was not pleased.

He took to calling it “the mewing cat” and had it hidden away in the residence of the White House, according to the White House Historical Association.

Eventually, the artwork was destroyed.

“Roosevelt disliked Théobald Chartran’s rendition of him so much that he ordered it burned,” Thomas Balcerski, a presidential historian at Eastern Connecticut State University, told McClatchy News. “He later opted for another portrait by John Sargent Singer.”

Over half a century later, President Lyndon Johnson similarly felt as though he’d been done dirty by a portrait artist.

In 1967, American painter Peter Hurd was commissioned to render the president on canvas. But when the piece was finished, Johnson was extremely unhappy, and called it “the ugliest thing I ever saw,” according to the White House Historical Association.

The piece, which can be seen here, depicts Johnson standing in front of the U.S. Capitol and holding a history book.

“He thought the portrait made him look like ‘some hulking cow hand,’” Balcerski said.

Hurd later defended his work, telling the Washington Post that he had little time to complete it and added that Johnson “hasn’t the vaguest concept of how art works,” the White House Historical Association said.

Johnson had a new portrait done by Elizabeth Shoumatoff, and Hurd’s painting was given to the National Portrait Gallery, which promised to refrain from exhibiting it until Johnson left office, according to the gallery.

One of the most recent presidents to reportedly disapprove of his portrait was President Bill Clinton.

In 2005, the National Portrait Gallery commissioned Nelson Shanks, “a classically trained portraitist,” to paint Clinton, who had left office four years earlier.

The work, which can be seen here, featured Clinton standing next to the Oval Office fireplace with his hand on his hip.

Ten years after its completion, Shanks revealed that, hidden within the painting, there is a subtle reference to Monica Lewinsky, the intern with whom the president had an affair.

A shadow on the mantle is intended to represent Lewinsky’s iconic blue dress, Shanks said in 2015, according to The Guardian.

“And so the Clintons hate the portrait,” Shanks said, according to NPR. “They want it removed from the National Portrait Gallery. They’re putting a lot of pressure on them.”

Balcerski noted that the Clintons have never publicly expressed their disapproval.

The painting is no longer on display at the gallery. Instead, a 2006 portrait by Chuck Close is on exhibition.