Born and raised in New York City, Everett Raymond Kinstler was drawn to the world of illustration. At the age of sixteen Kinstler left the High School of Industrial Art and began his professional career as a comic book artist, most notably Zorro, Hawkman, and The Shadow. He also created hundreds of book and magazine illustrations and covers for paperback books. He studied at the Art Students League, where he later taught. Kinstler ultimately made the transition to portraitist in the mid-1950s, and soon established himself as one of the nation's foremost portrait painters with more than 1,200 portraits to his credit. He also devotes time to painting landscapes and watercolors.

Among Kinstler's portraits are such well-known personalities as Tony Bennett, Carol Burnett, James Cagney, Gene Hackman, Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, John Wayne, and Tom Wolfe. Others include Supreme Court Chief Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Harry Blackmun; business and government leaders; six U. S. Governors; four U. S. Secretaries of State; and presidents of universities and colleges. Five Presidents have posed for him: Richard Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Kinstler has also painted First Ladies Betty Ford and Lady Bird Johnson and more than fifty U. S. Cabinet officers. The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., has acquired seventy-five of his original works for their permanent collection; and in 1999 Kinstler received the Copley Medal from the Smithsonian, National Portrait Gallery, its highest honor. His work is also represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, and the Brooklyn Museum.

Mr. Kinstler is currently painting the portraits of former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Senator Robert Dole for the U. S. Senate, and Donald Trump.
Mr. Kinstler's papers are part of the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.

BRUSH WITH HISTORY: Letters Reflecting the Life and Career of Everett Raymond Kinstler can be found on the first floor of Mugar Memorial Library in the Richards-Frost Room at Boston University; 771 Commonwealth Avenue; and can be viewed Monday through Friday 9 - 4:30.