Everett Raymond Kinstler

Kinstler was born in New York City and made his start as an illustrator for comic books and pulp books including Westerns, crime stories, and romances. He would go on to study at the Arts Students League and the National Academy of Design.

Beginning in the 1950s, Kinstler shifted his focus to portraiture. From 1969 to 1974, Kinstler returned to the Arts Students League as an instructor. The collections of the National Portrait Gallery include more than eighty works from over six decades of his career. Seven presidents have sat for him: Richard Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Celebrities, sports stars, writers, and leaders of the military and industry are among his more than 2,000 commissions. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida and the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts. In 1999 the National Portrait Gallery awarded Kinstler the John Singleton Copley Medal.