Aaron Shikler
Aaron Abraham Shikler was an American artist noted for portraits of American statesmen, such as the official portrait of John F. Kennedy, and celebrities such as Jane Engelhard and Sister Parish.
Early life
Shikler was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 18, 1922. His parents were Eastern European Jewish immigrants who came to the United States before World War I. After graduating from The High School of Music & Art in 1940, Shikler studied at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, and at the Hans Hofmann School in New York. Drafted in 1943, he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II as a cartographer in Europe. He married Barbara Lurie, whom he met at Tyler, and had two children with her. Barbara was diagnosed with lung cancer and died in 1998.Work
personally selected Shikler in 1970 to provide the posthumous character study of John F. Kennedy, Oil Portrait of John F. Kennedy, which serves as Kennedy's official White House portrait. He also painted the official White House portraits of First Ladies Jacqueline Kennedy and Nancy Reagan, as well as portraits of the Kennedy childrenand is represented in numerous public collections such as The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the New Britain Museum of American Art, and the National Academy of Design.
Shikler painted the official White House portraits of Nancy and Ronald Reagan in 1989. His portrait of Ronald Reagan was subsequently rejected as being an insufficient likeness and put into storage in 1991. A second portrait, painted by Everett Raymond Kinstler in 1991, was deemed more successful and presently hangs in the White House. Shikler's portrait of Nancy Reagan depicted her in a red dress and is presently part of the White House collection.