The Obama Portraits by Taína Caragol, Dorothy Moss, Richard Powell, Kim Sajet – Hardcover: 152 pages; Princeton University Press (Feb 11, 2020) Best Seller

A richly illustrated celebration of the paintings of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

Beauty's Legacy:
Gilded Age Portraits in America by Barbara Dayer Gallati – Hardcover: 184 pages; Giles (Nov 5, 2013)

Named after a series of charity shows held by the New York social elite during the 1890s, Beauty's Legacy examines the remarkable resurgence of portraiture in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. It features over fifty paintings, including works by John Singer Sargent, William Bouguereau, and James Montgomery Flagg, and twenty-five miniature portraits of reigning social celebrities from Peter Marié's famous collection Gallery of Beauty.

Portraits of the Presidents: The National Portrait Gallery by Frederick S. Voss – Hardcover: 136 pages; Rizzoli (Nov 2000)

The most visited gallery of the National Portrait Gallery is the Hall of Presidents, the collection of portraits of America's elected leaders. More than a visual record of holders of power, these images evoke the careers and legacies of the men they portray.

The Worlds of Jacob Eichholtz: Portrait Painter of the Early Republic by Thomas R. Ryan – Hardcover: 176 pages; Pennsylvania State University Press (Nov 1, 2003)

The Worlds of Jacob Eichholtz explores the life and times of an oft-overlooked figure in early American art. Jacob Eichholtz (1776–1842) began his career in the metal trades but with much practice, some encouragement from his friend Thomas Sully, and a few weeks instruction from America’s preeminent portraitist, Gilbert Stuart, he transformed himself into one of the nation’s most productive portrait painters

Newportraits by Newport Art Museum – Library Binding: 344 pages; University Press of New England; 1st edition (May 1, 2000)

In 1992, the Newport Art Museum assembled an exhibition of 223 portraits of Newporters painted over a period of three centuries. It presented not just a gallery of the Newport elite and some of its haute bourgeoisie, but also a showcase of the most famous portraitists and portrait styles throughout United States history. Artists represented in this collectionrange from the great colonial portraitists Gilbert Stuart, Robert Feke, and John Singleton Copley to such modern figures as Diego Rivera, Larry Rivers, and Andy Warhol.

American Characters: Selections from the National Portrait Gallery, Accompanied by Literary Portraits by R. W. B. Lewis, Nancy Lewis, National Portrait Gallery – Hardcover: 432 pages; Yale University Press (Sep 1999)

This delightful book brings together 160 famous American figures from Pocahontas to Louis Armstrong, providing both visual and verbal portraits to illuminate their places in American life. The portraiture-paintings, sculptures, photographs, cartoons-and the literary images-eyewitness accounts, memoirs, poems, letters, and biographies-are accompanied by lively and informative commentary by the editors.

John Singleton Copley in America by Carrie Rebora, Paul Staiti – Hardcover: 368 pages; Metropolitan Museum of Art (1995)

This ponderously impressive tome examines colonial painter Copley's American-produced oeuvre. The artist's life and work is covered until his relocation to London in 1774. Based on a large exhibition organized by New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, this is the first monograph to appear on Copley since 1966.

John Singleton Copley by James T. Flexner, Deal Hudson (Introduction), Mortimer J. Adler (Preface) – Hardcover: 139 pages; Fordham University Press; 2nd edition (Jan 1, 1993)

A book for both the general reader of American history and the student of art, Flexner's study of Copley (1738-1815), brings into vivid detail the struggle the artist endured against an unfavorable environment in the New World, his rise to fame, the development of his unique style, and the personal growth of the man who rose to critical acclaim and then sank to obscurity.

The Invention of Painting in America by David Rosand – Hardcover: 246 pages; Columbia University Press (Nov 10, 2004)

Struggling to create an identity distinct from the European tradition but lacking an established system of support, early painting in America received little cultural acceptance in its own country or abroad. Yet despite the initial indifference with which it was first met, American art flourished against the odds and founded the aesthetic consciousness that we equate with American art today.

Meet Your Neighbors: New England Portraits, Painters, & Society, 1790-1850 by Caroline F. Sloat – Hardcover: 144 pages; University of Massachusetts Press; 1st edition (Apr 30, 1992)

American Portraiture in the Grand Manner, 1720-1920 by Michael Quick – Paperback: 228 pages; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1981)

The Portrait in Britain and America With a Biographical Dictionary of Portrait Painters 1680-1914 by Robin Simon – Hardcover: 256 pages; G K Hall; 1st edition (Aug 1, 1987)

High Society: American Portraits of the Gilded Age by Barbara Dayer Gallati, Ortrud Westheider – Hardcover: 214 pages; Bucerius Kunst Forum. Distributed by Merrell; 1st edition (Aug 1, 2008)

The period of rapid industrial expansion in America after the Civil War is known as the Gilded Age. The era saw the formation of great personal fortunes and the almost feverish amassing of goods and art to fill the palatial homes of the rich. The commissioning of portraits was one way for the new aristocracy to express their wealth and demonstrate their achievements, and the stunning works of art created during these years remain among the finest examples of portraiture.

Lavishly illustrated with 175 portraits and period photographs, High Society brings to life the colourful personalities of the major artists and patrons of the Gilded Age, and, through essays exploring such themes as women artists and new public perceptions of the artist, provides an entertaining introduction to a significant chapter in American art.

George and Martha Washington: Portraits from the Presidential Years by Ellen Gross Miles, National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution) – Paperback: 56 pages; University Press of Virginia (Feb 1, 1999)

Facing the Past: Nineteenth-Century Portraits from the Collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts by Susan Danly – Paperback (Jun 1992) Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

A Brush with History: Paintings from the National Portrait Gallery by National Portrait Gallery Smithsonian Institution, Carolyn Kinder, Ellen G. Miles – Paperback: 250 pages; University Press of New England (Jan 2001)

As the new nation began its journey through history, Charles Willson Peale reasoned that it would be valuable for a republic to have the likenesses of those who had played a prominent part in the struggle for independence.

Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections by Sona Johnston, Susan Bollendorf, John House, Baltimore Museum of Art – Hardcover: 168 pages; Rizzoli (Oct 1999)

This book accompanies the first major exhibition to focus exclusively on the portraits made by the Impressionist masters and their immediate predecessors. Breaking free from portraiture's conventions, the Impressionists expanded the notion of a portrait to reflect not only an individual's appearance but also his or her everyday surroundings.

From traditional, tightly rendered likenesses to light-filled, loosely brushed paintings, the works in this volume depict a variety of subjects: friends, family members, patrons, public figures, and the artists themselves. Reproduced are key works by fourteen pivotal figures including Gustave Caillebotte, Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, which reveal the astonishing originality and beauty of the Impressionists' portraits.

The Genius of Gilbert Stuart by Dorinda Evans – Hardcover: 216 pages; Princeton University Press (Mar 1, 1999) Best Seller

Gilbert Stuart was probably the most gifted American portraitist of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. He is best known for his "Athenaeum" portrait of George Washington, which is today a national icon. In this book, Dorinda Evans combines a wealth of original insights with revealing new documentation to present a long-needed, scholarly treatment of Stuart's life and influential work

Facing the New World: Jewish Portraits in Colonial and Federal America by Richard Brilliant, Ellen Smith – Hardcover: 111 pages; Prestel (Nov 1, 1997)

Facing the New World features important paintings by distinguished American artists such as Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, Charles Willson Peale, John Wesley Jarvis, and Ralph Earl. There are portraits by unknown folk-artists and some comparative paintings of non-Jewish subjects, including a work by Joshua Johnson, an accomplished African-American painter active in the Baltimore area.

Gilbert Stuart: The Father Of American Portraiture (Library of American Art) by Richard McLanathan – Hardcover: 159 pages; Harry N. Abrams (Sep 1, 1986)

To some, Gilbert Stuart is merely the artist whose portrait of George Washington stared from nearly every classroom in the country at one time. He was, of course, as this book beautifully displays, one of this country's finest artists. Beginning as a Colonial primitive, Stuart limited himself to portrait painting, and achieved international fame before his death in 1828.

Portraits in the Massachusetts Historical Society: An Illustrated Catalogue With Descriptive Matter by Andrew Oliver, Ann Millspaugh Huff, Edward W. Hanson – Hardcover: 163 pages; Massachusetts Historical Society (Mar 16, 2005)

A Memorial Volume of Virginia Historical Portraiture, 1585-183 by Alexander Wilbourne Weddell – Unknown Binding: 556 pages; The William Byrd Press, Incorporated (1930)