Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C (2013)
Located in: Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture
Address: 8th St NW & G St NW, Washington, DC 20001, United States
Founded: 1962
Phone: +1 202-633-8300
Websites: https://npg.si.edu/exhibit/fourjustices/index.html
Introduction
On October 28, 2013, the National Portrait Gallery celebrated the arrival of Nelson Shanks’s The Four Justices, a tribute to the four female justices who have served on the U.S. Supreme Court. The work is monumental; it measures approximately seven feet by five-and-a-half feet (in its custom-made frame it is almost nine-and-a-half feet by eight feet) and holds the west wall of the National Historic Landmark Building’s second-floor rotunda. Of the work, NPG Chief Curator Brandon Fortune noted, “The National Portrait Gallery is honored to have such an ambitious group portrait on loan to the museum.”
The work is based on sittings the justices had with Shanks; the two senior justices are seated and the recent appointees standing. Although the logistics of bringing three active and one retired justice into his studio was challenging, Shanks prefers to draw from life, which he feels brings each sitter’s distinct presence into his work. “If you can imagine a painting—no matter how facile—that doesn’t show character, something is missing,” Shanks noted in an interview with NPG. “Representation of character is really what counts to me.”
Only men had sat on the bench of the Supreme Court until President Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O’Connor in 1981. After O’Connor, the next woman to receive an appointment was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a nominee of President Bill Clinton in 1993. President Barack Obama appointed Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan are still on the bench; O’Connor retired in 2006.
Shanks’s oil on canvas painting is on loan to the National Portrait Gallery from Ian and Annette Cumming; they have also loaned their portrait of mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves by Shanks to NPG. Shanks is also responsible for two presidential portraits in the Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection: one of President Reagan created in 1989, and one of President Clinton painted in 2005.
The Painting
A major step in women’s struggle for equality came on March 3, 1879, when Belva Lockwood became the first woman to argue before the Supreme Court. In the 1940s, distinguished jurist Florence Allen was considered for the Court, but opposition, including from the sitting justices, precluded her nomination.
In 1981 Sandra Day O’Connor (born 1930) became the first woman to serve on the Court. O’Connor, a graduate of Stanford Law School, was serving on the Arizona Court of Appeals when President Ronald Reagan nominated her as an associate justice. O’Connor retired from the Court in 2006.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (born 1933) graduated from Columbia Law School. She was serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia when President Bill Clinton nominated her as an associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1993.
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) received her J.D. from Yale Law School. She was serving on the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, when President Barack Obama nominated her as an associate justice in 2009. She became the first Latino to sit on the Supreme Court.
Elena Kagan (born 1960) graduated from Harvard Law School. She was President Obama’s solicitor general when the president nominated her as an associate justice of the Supreme Court in 2010.
Nelson Shanks was commissioned to create this portrait to recognize the accomplishments of all four justices. He has drawn on the traditions of Dutch group portraiture for his composition, and the setting is based on interiors and a courtyard within the Supreme Court Building in Washington.
Interviews with the Justices
Jan Smith sat down with each of the four female justices who have served on the U.S. Supreme Court. —Justice O' Connor, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan—and asked them to tell their own story.
1. An Interview with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
2. An Interview with Justice Sandra Day O' Connor
3. An Interview with Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
4. An Interview with Justice Elena Kagan
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Links
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Loveginsburg
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Loveginsburg
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/joanruthbaderginsburg
This page was created by the Independent Director of the Supreme Court of the United States, Abraham Lincoln Ginsburg. (Reference 28 U.S. Code §608 - Seal, Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression. See 37 C.F.R. 201.2(a)(3). Contact Email: i.love.ruth.bader.ginsburg@gmail.com)