Nelson Shanks

He was an honorary member of the American Society of Classical Realism Guild of Artists. Shanks was a painter, teacher and art historian influential in the revival of Classical Realism in the United States. His portraits of royalty, politicians and celebrities added to his international profile as one of the foremost contemporary figurative painters. Shanks' philosophies and skills were shared through his teaching at various public and private institutions.

Nelson Shanks studied at Art Students League of New York, Kansas City Art Institute and National Academy of Design. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Work by Nelson Shanks is recorded in the collections of National Galleries Scotland and National Portrait Gallery.

• Name — Nelson Shanks • Birth Name — John Nelson Shanks • Born — 23 December 1937 • Birthplace — Rochester, New York, U.S. • Died — 28 August 2015 • Place of death — Andalusia, Pennsylvania, U.S. • Occupation — Artist, painter

Shanks was born in Rochester, New York. He lived in Wilmington, Delaware, for most of his childhood. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute with Wilbur Niewald and in New York City at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League. At New York's Art Students League, he earned his tuition serving as a monitor in classes taught by Robert Brackman, Ivan Olinsky and Edwin Dickinson. He studied privately with John Koch and Henry Hensche. Grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and the Stacey Foundation allowed him to study in Florence with Pietro Annigoni at the Accademia de Belle Arti. He then taught in Memphis, Chicago and Pennsylvania, where he maintained a studio for over three decades.

His portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales was completed in 1996. The painting was first shown at Hirschl & Adler Gallery in New York City, April 24 to June 28, 1996, and now hangs in the Princess's ancestral home at Althorp. His other commissions include John Paul II, President Ronald Reagan, President Bill Clinton, and Luciano Pavarotti.

His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Kensington Palace in London and Fortezza Firmafede in Sarzana, Italy. During the summer and fall of 2011, he had solo exhibitions in Russia at the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg and the Russian Academy of Art, Moscow. He was one of two living American painters to have been invited to exhibit at either of these venues. Other exhibition of Shanks' work at museums and galleries have included the National Academy of Design; Hirschl & Adler Galleries; Coe Kerr and FAR Galleries in New York; Dayton Art Institute; the Butler Institute of American Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Philadelphia Art Alliance; the New Jersey State Museum; the National Gallery of Art; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Oklahoma University; the University of Pennsylvania; Temple University, Jefferson University, Johns Hopkins University; the College of William and Mary; the Allentown Art Museum, the Palmer Museum of Art; George Washington University; the University of the Arts; Oglethorpe University Museum; LaSalle University; the Royal Palace, Stockholm; Kensington Palace, London; and the historic Filoli Estate, California. A major one-man exhibition was held at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as well as the Hirschl & Adler exhibition, "Yanks Paint Brits." In August 2004, the city of Sarzana, Italy hosted a one-man exhibition entitled 'Dal Maestro'/'From the Master', in a fifteenth-century fortress called Fortezza Firmafede. The Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, also hosted an exhibition 'Dal Maestro' in October 2004, of more than fifty works by Nelson Shanks. In addition, his work is held in distinguished collections worldwide.

Known for his skill in capturing the complex nature of his subjects, Shanks' portraits have contributed to his reputation as one of the foremost contemporary figurative painters. Among his notable commissions are Diana, Princess of Wales, Pope John Paul II for the Vatican Museum, Margaret Thatcher, U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton for the National Portrait Gallery. Significant commissions also include Luciano Pavarotti for the Metropolitan Opera, Mstislav Rostropovich for the Kennedy Center, Denyce Graves for the National Portrait Gallery and the private collection at Althorp of Charles, Lord Spencer. Other portraits include King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Queen Silvia of Sweden, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, J. Carter Brown, Katharine Graham, Judge Guido Calabresi, Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop, Robert Wood Johnson, Jr., James Burke, Marcus Wallenberg, Dr. Peter Wallenberg, Ms. Darla Moore, Mr. Lionel Pincus, Mr. Jerry Speyer, Chairman of the Board, Museum of Modern Art, Arthur O. Sulzberger Sr., Chairman of the Board, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chairman Emeritus New York Times, Mary McFadden, United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and many others. There is a collection of five Nelson Shank portraits in the Huffington Library at Culver Academies. These include The Huffingtons, Michael and Arianna, The Huffington Sisters, Roy M. Huffington, Phyllis Gough Huffington, and Michael Huffington Study. Shank's work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden, Kensington Palace in London and Fortezza Firmafede in Sarzana, Italy. In 2015, Shanks revealed that he had hidden a secret reference to the blue dress worn by Monica Lewinsky in the official portrait of President Bill Clinton hanging in the National Portrait Gallery by way of a shadow.