First Lady Michelle Obama (painting)

First Lady Michelle Obama
Portrait of Michelle Obama
Artist	Amy Sherald
Year	2018
Medium	oil paint, linen
Subject	Michelle Obama
Dimensions	183.2 cm (72.1 in) × 152.7 cm (60.1 in) × 7 cm (2.8 in)
Location	National Portrait Gallery
Accession No.	PA/NPG.18-57
Website	npg.si.edu/exhibition/former-first-lady-michelle-obama-artist-amy-sherald
[edit on Wikidata]

First Lady Michelle Obama, initially titled Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, is a portrait of former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, painted by the artist Amy Sherald. Unveiled in 2018, it hangs in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in Washington, D.C. The six-by-five-foot (1.8 by 1.5 m) oil-on-linen painting shows Obama, rendered in Sherald's signature grisaille, resting her chin lightly on her hand, as a geometric print dress flows outward filling the frame against a sky-blue background.

Praised by critics and immensely popular with museum visitors, the National Portrait Gallery's attendance doubled in the two years after the unveiling of Sherald's portrait along with Kehinde Wiley's portrait of President Barack Obama. Museum director Kim Sajet credits Sherald and Wiley with reinvigorating the genre of portrait painting. Sherald and Wiley were also the first African American artists to receive commissions for National Portrait Gallery presidential portraits.