President Joe Biden will host former President Barack Obama and wife Michelle Obama for their White House portrait ceremony in September.
This comes after former President Donald Trump refused to host the Obamas. Traditionally, the sitting president hosts the former president’s ceremony. Two portraits of the former first couple are revealed, along with the artists who have been commissioned by the couple during the ceremony in the East Room.
Even once Biden took office, the ceremony was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Sept. 7 event will be the first time the former first lady will enter the White House since 2017. Barack Obama was in the East Room as recently as April for an Affordable Care Act event.
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These portraits are separate from previous ones that have been displayed at the National Portrait Gallery since 2018. The White House Historical Association funds this project during every presidency, dating back to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s time. Roosevelt and his wife had their portraits painted for an unrelated event, but the association negotiated the retrieval of one portrait for the White House collection in 1947 and then another in 1965.
The last time a formal ceremony was held was in 2012, for former President George W. Bush, hosted by then-President Obama.
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Former President Jimmy Carter was the first to host a portrait ceremony, doing so for his predecessor, former President Gerald Ford, in 1978. However, he asked not to have a ceremony for himself. The Carters’ portraits were still commissioned and obtained by the White House.
