Rudy Giuliani is one of the most recognized men in the country, but his official portrait is another story. Several New Yorkers who took a look at the painting Wednesday mistook America’s Mayor for the 38th President. “My first thought was Gerald Ford,” said Stephen Braun, 43, of Chelsea.
“He looks a little too thin to be Giuliani, but they always try to make paintings look flattering.”
The portrait, unveiled at a ceremony inside City Hall this week, shows Giuliani wearing a dark pinstripe suit – in a tribute to the New York Yankees.
The subtle nod to his favorite team didn’t help New Yorkers recognize Giuliani as the man on the canvas.
“He looks a little familiar. I don’t know who it is though,” said Donna Mossan, 54, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
When told it was the former mayor, she said she “would never have guessed that. He looks totally different.”
“It looks a little like Gerald Ford to me,” said Brooklynite Antoinette Bruno, 67, of Bensonhurst. “I wouldn’t have guessed it was Rudy. It doesn’t look like him.”
The portrait was done by Everett Raymond Kinstler, who has painted two U.S. Supreme Court justices, four secretaries of state and other celebrities.
Giuliani’s was completed over the course of several sittings starting in 2006.
“It looks a little disproportionate,” said Danny Petre, 28, of the upper West Side. “It makes him look too tall. I think he’s shorter.”
Bill Dagle, 57, of Murray Hill, disagreed.
“They did a very good job; I recognized him immediately,” he said. “It’s a pretty good representation. The bone structure, the posture, everything.”
Kinstler, 84, scoffed at critics of his work, saying it was unfair to compare an 8-by-10-inch photo copy to the real thing.
Kinstler said he painted Giuliani to be “over life-size.”
“He was fun to paint for me because he was very animated and very interested and interesting.”
For his part, Giuliani said he would have preferred to be painted in a full Yankees uniform – or not at all.
“I’m superstitious about portraits; they’re for dead people,” he said at the unveiling.
{NY Daily News/Matzav.com}
Gerald Ford? Doesn’t look like him.