Nelson Shanks, renowned portrait artist, dead at 77

Nelson Shanks, 77, of Andalusia, Bucks County, a renowned painter who depicted subjects including Pope John Paul II and President Bill Clinton with what critics called a peerless realism, died at home Friday, Aug. 28, of complications from cancer.

In a career that spanned 60 years, Mr. Shanks is perhaps best known for his portraits of international luminaries. His subjects also included Diana, Princess of Wales; President Ronald Reagan; and tenor Luciano Pavarotti.

Mr. Shanks infused his portraits with what he called "humanist realism," painting his subjects with an exacting verisimilitude. He was instrumental in the revival of the classical realism style of painting.

"I try to push portraits as far as I can beyond the academic, traditional, straightforward boardroom style," Mr. Shanks said in a 2001 interview. "I try to bring the art out."

D. Dodge Thompson, chief of exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, has called Mr. Shanks "the most talented contemporary traditional portraitist."

Mr. Shanks preferred to be called a painter, highlighting his varied subject matter and leaving out the focus on portraiture.

It's "both flattering and demeaning," Mr. Shanks said of the term portrait painter, because "there are so many bad ones."

Mr. Shanks' commissions hang at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Kensington Palace in London, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. His work has been exhibited at museums worldwide, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the National Gallery of Art in Washington; and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

In 2001, Clinton selected Mr. Shanks to paint his portrait for the National Portrait Gallery's Hall of Presidents.

Mr. Shanks said Clinton seemed nervous during the sitting, and described the former president as "probably the most famous liar of all time" in an a Philadelphia Daily News interview published earlier this year. The Clinton administration had done good things for the nation, Mr. Shanks said, but the artist couldn't get over the Monica Lewinsky controversy.

Mr. Shanks included a subtle reference to the intern in Clinton's portrait; a shadow cast on the Oval Office mantel partially represents Lewinsky's famous blue dress, Mr. Shanks said.

The Clinton painting was Mr. Shanks' second presidential portrait; he painted Reagan in a portrait that hangs in the Union League. In 2006, the league opened its doors to the public for the first time in more than 100 years for an exhibit of Mr. Shanks' work.

Four years earlier, the artist's portrait of Pope John Paul II was unveiled at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Center City. Mr. Shanks relied on photographs for his depiction of the pope, but he did meet the pontiff twice; Mr. Shanks said the pope left him awestruck.

Mr. Shanks described the process of portraiture as a shedding of pretense that can lead to a closeness between artist and subject.

When Mr. Shanks painted Princess Diana, she was being hounded by the British press. Mr. Shanks included her emotions in his interpretation, painting the princess as sad and introspective, he said in an interview with the Daily News.

"I had the opportunity to be her defender and her champion, and we became very, very fast friends," he said in a 2014 interview in The Inquirer.

Born in Rochester, N.Y., Mr. Shanks spent most of his childhood in Wilmington. He began painting as a youngster when his father gave him a painting set.

At 18, Mr. Shanks enrolled in the Art Students League in New York, where he earned tuition by serving as a monitor in classes of such artists as Robert Brackman and Ivan Olinsky. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and the National Academy of Design.

Mr. Shanks studied in Florence and later began a teaching career that included faculty posts at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Art Students League, the National Academy of Design, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

In October 2002, Mr. Shanks and his wife, Leona, also an artist, founded Studio Incamminati, School for Contemporary Realist Art, near 12th and Callowhill Streets. The school evolved out of a series of successful workshops offered by the couple in response to a need for serious art instruction.

The Shankses also developed an apprentice program at their Bucks County home and studio where artists received room, board, and instruction.

During lessons, Mr. Shanks taught using an experiential method and rarely spoke, said painter Bo Bartlett, who studied with Mr. Shanks for two years in the mid-1970s.

"He didn't use words. We just painted what he painted," said Bartlett, 59, of Wheaton Island, Maine, and Columbus, Ga. "One time a student asked him about what he was trying to say with a painting. He said, 'If I wanted to say something about painting, I'd write on it.' "

Mr. Shanks has been honored by the American Society of Portrait Artists, the Portrait Society of America, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

"I don't know who I could think of who had more of a passion for painting and art than Nelson," said Jay Pennie, president of Studio Incamminati. "If he could paint 24 hours a day, he would have."

In addition to his wife, Mr. Shanks is survived by three daughters, Renee Hofferman, Annalisa Shanks, and Jennifer Shanks; a son, Alexander Shanks; and four grandchildren.

Arrangements are pending.

Memorial donations may be made to Studio Incamminati, School for Contemporary Realist Art, Suite 400, 340 N. 12th Street, Philadelphia, 19107.

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