Fall 2008 Issue

California painter Ginny Stanford is known for her skillful and sensitive portraits. Her subjects include people of high accomplishment in government and public service, the arts, education, religion, and business.

In 1992, The National Portrait Gallery acquired one of three portraits she completed of prose writer MFK Fisher. The Fisher portrait was among 75 paintings from the Gallery's permanent collection selected for a multi-year exhibition of remarkable Americans which toured museums in the United States, Great Britain, and Japan. Ms. Stanford, the only living woman artist to be represented in the exhibition, is the subject of a short film on portraiture produced by Arts & Entertainment Network for the Smithsonian Institution. In 2004, The National Portrait Gallery commissioned her to paint the official portrait of former First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, which was unveiled in April, 2006.