The portrait above, “Kamala,” painted by Kadir Nelson, would have been the cover of the November 18, 2024, issue of The New Yorker—that is, if Kamala Harris had won the election on November 5th. Instead, late that evening, when it became clear that the vote was going the other way, it was swapped out for a silhouette of soon-to-be President Donald Trump, drawn quickly by Barry Blitt (who is also the artist behind the January 20, 2025, cover about the Inauguration).
This is not the first would-be Madame President cover in the magazine’s history; the first was, of course, in 2016, when a cover of Hillary Clinton was replaced by a cover of a wall. Though this image of Vice-President Harris never made it onto newsstands, the original painting will be on view at an exhibition of New Yorker covers at L’Alliance New York, which opens on January 21st and runs through March 30th.
In the video below, the artist elaborates on his creative process:
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