The artist who originally painted the now infamous bizarre portait of Bill Clinton wearing a blue dress and red heels in a seemingly suggestive pose that was found in Epstein’s home after his death has broken her silence following the waves a photo of the painting when the Daily Mail published it.
Petrina Ryan-Kleid was a student at New York Academy of Art where she said she painted portraits of Bill Clinton and George Bush as part of her thesis. Some of her paintings, including “Parsing Bill” as it was called, were auctioned off at a fundraiser, after which Ryan-Kleid said she lost track of them.
“As with most of my paintings, I had completely lost track of this piece when it was sold seven years ago. So it was a complete surprise to me to learn yesterday that it wound up in Epstein’s home,” said Ryan-Kleid.
The Washington Examiner has more details:
The artist who painted the portrait of former President Bill Clinton wearing a blue dress told the Washington Examiner that it was a “complete surprise” to learn that Jeffrey Epstein, the alleged child sex trafficker, had her work hanging in his Manhattan home.
Petrina Ryan-Kleid, an Australian artist living in New York City, said, “When the [New York Academy of Art] put on a fundraiser at the Tribeca Ball that year, they sold my painting to one of the attendees. I had no idea who the buyer was at the time.”
The existence of the oil-on-canvas painting, dubbed "Parsing Bill," depicts the former president sitting seductively in an Oval Office chair, wearing red heels and a blue dress reminiscent of the one he soiled during his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Ryan-Kleid said she had been a graduate student at the New York Academy of Art in 2012, where she painted pictures of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as part of her master’s thesis.
“As with most of my paintings, I had completely lost track of this piece when it was sold seven years ago,” Ryan-Kleid continued. “So it was a complete surprise to me to learn yesterday that it wound up in Epstein's home.”
Epstein put out a press release in December 2012 claiming his charitable foundation had given "crucial funding" to the New York Academy of Art.
“It was hanging up there prominently — as soon as you walked in — in a room to the right,” said one source who had seen the bizarre painting, according to the New York Post. “Everybody who saw it laughed and smirked.”
The New York Post also said Epstein had a mannequin in a wedding dress hanging from the ceiling.
The New York Post also commented:
The artist behind Jeffrey Epstein’s now-viral portrait of Bill Clinton in a blue dress says she sold the painting at a Tribeca Ball fundraiser several years ago — and had “no idea” that Epstein was the one who had purchased it.
“In 2012, as a grad student at the New York Academy of Art, I painted pictures of Presidents Clinton and Bush as part of my master’s thesis,” explained Petrina Ryan-Kleid in a statement to The Post on Thursday.
“When the school put on a fundraiser at the Tribeca Ball that year, they sold my painting to one of the attendees. I had no idea who the buyer was at the time,” said Ryan-Kleid, a New York-based artist from Australia. “As with most of my paintings, I had completely lost track of this piece when it was sold seven years ago. So it was a complete surprise to me to learn yesterday that it wound up in Epstein’s home.”
Sources told The Post on Wednesday that Epstein — who was facing sex trafficking charges before his alleged suicide — had the oil painting hanging in his home for all to see.
“It was hanging up there prominently — as soon as you walked in — in a room to the right,” a source said. “Everybody who saw it laughed and smirked.”
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