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Transcription: [00:00:00]
{SPEAKER name="Warren Perry"}
Welcome everybody, my name is Warren Perry and I'm a researcher for the Catalogue of American Portraits

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and we're very glad to see you here on this, Elvis's 74th birthday.

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The latest news I understand out of Memphis is that Priscilla Beaulieu Presley showed up

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at the Memphis State Marshall game last night and announced

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an additional scholarship to the University of Memphis — or Memphis State, it was Memphis State when I went there — and

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she announced an additional scholarship to the University from the Elvis Presley Foundation.

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Elvis ehh -- It was 1977 when Elvis passed away and

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you might think the Elvis news stops, but it never stops [[faint laughter]] it keeps on going.

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I wanna talk first about the portrait, then talk briefly about Elvis' life, and about his records, his movies, and then

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I wanna talk lastly about charity - Elvis and charity - and then I wanna hit briefly on Elvis and Elvis literature.

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First of all, the gentleman who painted this portrait is Ralph Wolfe Cowan. Ralph is still alive; he's very much with us.

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He used to have a studio across the street from the Portrait Gallery and when I spoke with him a couple years ago,

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he said, he never dreamed he would have a portrait in the National Portrait Gallery and to

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and to him, this is certainly one of his greatest accomplishments, although,

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he has many other great accomplishments as an artist.

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I have a small vitae of him here. One of the most impressive things about the artist is - not many people know this about Ralph -

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but Mr. Cowan is considered to be the number one portrait painter in the world,

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and he's been recognized for painting more reigning monarchs and world leaders than anyone in history.

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And I think I have a shorts list -- actually it's a long list [[faint laughter]] -- of people he's painted.

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This top section alone is the royalty and the dignitaries and we see people on here -

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like Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Princess Grace and Prince Albert of Monaco,

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Prince Ernst and Princess Caroline, Princess Stephanie of Monaco, the Sultan of Brunei,

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King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, Pope John Paul II, Prince Rainier of Monaco -

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i-it goes on and on; it's truly an amazing list.

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The portraits are big, and they have elements of — i-in literature they call it magical realism.

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There're these -- they have these huge fantasy elements about them.

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You see President Reagan and President Kennedy there, and Nancy Reagan right there in this looong flowing

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{SPEAKER name="Audience Question"}
Are these commissioned, ones? Or ones he just decided to do?

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{SPEAKER name="Warren Perry"}
These are all commissioned. He goes in and he sits with these people.

{SPEAKER name="Audience Question"}
Oh, OK. Mm-hmm.

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{SPEAKER name="Warren Perry"}
He actually had an audience with the Pope here in Washington, D.C., briefly, years ago.

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He's met every one of these people and because these people have a limited amount of time on their hands,

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typically, he makes a few sketches and then what he does is

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take a few photos, he consults with them a few times. But yes,

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it's a, very much a for-profit enterprise and he is very much recognized in those- in those

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higher, higher levels as, as the painter, the one you go to.

There's a, there's a picture in here I believe of
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