America’s Presidents.

Compositions Rhode Island-born artist Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) captured America's first President, George Washington, in oil on canvas, in 1796, creating a precedent for the commissioning of official presidential portraiture that has endured to this day. Former president Obama chose artist Robert McCurdy (1952-), who created a photorealistic, exquisitely detailed painting of the president wearing a black suit and gray tie, standing in the center of the canvas against a stark white background. For decades following Lincoln, every president sported a beard or - in the case of Grover Cleveland (No. 22 and 24), a mustache - with the exception of Andrew Johnson (No. 17), Lincoln's former vice president. [Extracted from the article]