Everett Raymond Kinstler, praised worldwide as the Modern Master of Portraiture, still paints every day—at age 92—in his studios in Manhattan and Connecticut. In my conversation with the legendary Kinstler at his Gramercy Park studio in the National Arts Club, we discussed the Paris Hemingway Conference. We walked next door to another famous private club, The Players, for lunch. The Players has an entire permanent gallery—The Kinstler Room—devoted to Ray’s work. I don’t remember what we ate at The Players but the memorable conversation, as always with Ray, was warm and wonderful, equal parts wit and wisdom, art and life. I mentioned that Hemingway had been a member of The Players. No, Ray said, I never did a portrait of Hemingway, never met him. Some time after that lunch, Ray claimed me as one of his “victims”—as he calls the subjects who sit for his portraiture. At some point, as we discussed the preparations for my portrait-sitting and for the Hemingway Paris Extravaganza, I casually mentioned that the only thing missing from our Paris Program was a Kinstler Portrait of Hemingway. In what must be world-record time, Ray created the Hemingway Portrait (see preceding illustration) that had its sensational debut in Paris. There have been many portraits of Hemingway over the last 90-some years—some OK, many loathsome—but everyone who has seen Kinstler’s Hemingway said it is their favorite image of Hemingway—the best depiction ever.

I have known painters who were very proud of the fact that they had one or two of their portraits enshrined in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Kinstler has more than 100 of his portraits in the National Gallery. His Presidential Portraits adorn the walls of The White House. Art historians and museum curators praise Kinstler’s art of visual storytelling and proclaim him America’s pre-eminent portrait painter. But Ray began his illustrious career, more than 75 years ago in his teens, as an illustrator, and he is considered a key figure in the Golden Age of Comics or—as Ray and the others who defined and refined creative mastery of such work say—”The Comix” (not graphic novels). Early on, he also earned a living in pulp fiction and paperback book cover illustration. As Ray says, It’s all about storytelling. The following poem tells a story about one of his paperback covers.

For more about Kinstler’s work see the extensive bibliography of Kinstler studies, including these volumes: Everett Raymond Kinstler: Fifty Years—An Artist’s Journey, America Creative: Portraits by Everett Raymond Kinstler, and Everett Raymond Kinstler: My Brush with History. See also the pamphlet “About Kinstler’s Hemingway” by H. R. Stoneback (American University of Paris 2018).