Artist donates paintings of Christopher Reeve to National Portrait Gallery

Despair, hope, strength and anger all simmer beneath his patient, otherworldly gaze. It’s a startlingly new interpretation of the familiar face of actor-turned-activist Christopher Reeve. Large liquid blue eyes, angular chin, protruding brow—the portrait’s perspective and masterful use of brush strokes, light and color give the artwork a penetrating intimacy.

It was painted in October 2004 by New York-based artist Sacha Newley, just months before Reeve died at age 52. Perhaps best known for his role in the “Superman” movies, Reeve became a powerful voice for people living with disabilities after a 1995 horse-riding accident left him paralyzed from the neck down.

Newley painted two close-up portraits of Reeve’s face, as well as one full-length portrait of the actor strapped into his wheelchair. The paintings were completed from photographs and sketches taken by Newley during a visit to Reeve’s house in Connecticut.

The wheelchair, Newley observes, “is an image both of Reeve’s defeat and his heroic determination.” All three portraits were recently donated to the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery by the artist. The wheelchair portrait is currently on view in the exhibition “Twentieth-Century Americans.”

“At the Portrait Gallery, we collect portraits based upon the importance of the subject,” Brandon Fortune, a curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture, explains. “Our historians made the determination to acquire these three portraits based on the fact that Christopher Reeve was a very important figure in our culture, not only as an actor but also primarily as an activist.”

Reeve’s advocacy efforts led to the passage of the 1999 Work Incentives Improvement Act, allowing people with disabilities to return to work and still receive disability benefits. He also served as chairman of the board of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, which supports research to develop effective treatments and cures for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury and other central nervous system disorders. He lived his life according to his own definition of a hero: an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.

“The perfect acquisition for the Portrait Gallery is a vivid likeness of a prominent American by a talented artist,” Fortune says. “This is one of those perfect acquisitions.”