Everett Kinstler

Everett Raymond Kinstler (August 5, 1926 – May 26, 2019) was an American artist who bridged the worlds of pulp fiction and presidential portraiture. Born in New York City, he began his career as a teenager in the 1940s, drawing for comic books and pulp magazines. Over the next two decades, he contributed to titles such as *Four Color*, *Startling Comics*, and *Jesse James*, working as an artist, inker, and colorist on more than seventy issues. His energetic, illustrative style—rooted in the adventure and Western genres—made him a reliable hand for publishers seeking dynamic, fast-paced visuals.

Kinstler’s path shifted in the 1960s when he turned to portrait painting, studying under the noted portraitist Frank Vincent DuMond. He became one of America’s most sought-after official portraitists, painting Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan for the White House collection, as well as other notable figures such as Katharine Hepburn and John Wayne. Despite this high-profile turn, he never fully abandoned his comic-book roots, occasionally returning to the medium.

He received the National Portrait Gallery’s Portrait of a Nation Prize and was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. Kinstler died in 2019 at age 92, leaving a legacy as an artist who moved seamlessly from pulp pages to the walls of the White House.