President and First Lady Portraits

• In recent years, it's become customary for photos to mark the beginning of a term, with paintings unveiled later. President Barack Obama wears an American flag lapel pin in his official photograph, released Jan. 14, six days before he was sworn in. His office said it was the first to be taken with a digital camera.
  
  
  

  Official Portrait / Pete Souza

• President George W. Bush unveils his portrait at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery on Dec. 19. Unlike past presidents who have been portrayed wearing suits, Bush asked Yale classmate Robert Anderson to depict him in a more casual pose.
  
  
  

  Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

• First lady Laura Bush looks over her portrait, painted by Aleksander Titovets, a Russian native who now lives in El Paso, Texas.
  
  
  

  AP

• President Bill Clinton unveils at his formal portrait at the Smithsonian in 2006.
  
  
  

  Haraz N. Ghanbari, AP

• Hillary Clinton, then a U.S. senator from New York, walks past her portrait as first lady at the same ceremony.
  
  
  

  Haraz N. Ghanbari, AP

• Mrs. Clinton eyes an earlier portrait during an unveiling ceremony in the East Room of the White House on June 14, 2004.
  
  
  

  Mark Wilson, Getty Images

• President George H.W. Bush, with wife Barbara, unveils his official portrait in 1995. He sat for the painting at his home in Kennebunkport, Maine, but the picture's backdrop shows the East Room of the White House.
  
  
  

  Cameron Craig, AP

• President Ronald Reagan remarks on the portrait done for the White House, not the National Portrait Gallery, in 1989, while his wife, Nancy, gives her approval.
  
  
  

  Barry Thumma, AP

• Nancy Reagan poses in the Red Room in her 1981 official portrait.
  
  
  

  AP

• A portrait of President Jimmy Carter hangs in the "America's Presidents" exhibit at the Smithsonian in 2006. Artist Robert Templeton began sketches for this 1980 painting in 1978.
  
  
  

  Chris Greenberg, Getty Images