The year is 1980, Ronald Reagan has just secured the nomination for 40th President of the United States, and he is…asleep.

Aaron Shikler was commissioned by Time Magazine to create a portrait of Ronald Reagan for their “Man of the Year” issue in 1980. The artist was given 90 minutes to create a study for the portrait and instead of being a ham like he usually was, Reagan fell asleep. I guess the stress of having just been elected President of the United States got to him? As you can see, Shikler worked around the president-elect’s apparent narcolepsy and painted him very much awake in his natural California cowboy attire. 

Reagan at the time was the oldest president to ever be elected until Donald Trump, though you wouldn’t be able to tell in this portrait that he was 69 years old. I mean, he’s no spring chicken, but he definitely looks good for his age (much better than Trump, anyway). Shikler was a lighting genius, which created “a sense of intimacy” in his portraits. This is probably why he had such a long career as an American court painter. He was most famous for his work with the Kennedys, and was the first artist to paint an official portrait of a president after he had died (John F. Kennedy).

His success with the Reagans was a little less prominent. After this cover, Shikler was hired to do the official White House portraits of the Reagans. The portrait of Nancy Reagan was great, but Nancy was not a fan of the official portrait of her husband. The first draft was scrapped and the second, when finished, only hung in the White House for a few months before it was put into storage and replaced with another one by Everett Raymond Kinstler. This was kind of a burn, but Shikler still got paid and continued to get commissions so it was fine. He’s fine.

Reagan, dubbed the Great Communicator, was one of the most popular presidents of the 20th century and “had the rare distinction of leaving office more popular than when he arrived.” This may have had something to do with the fact that he was previously a famous actor, and as such, wildly charming and incredibly handsome. Also, he survived an assassination attempt which boosted his approval rating. People love survivors. There were a few drawbacks of the Reagan presidency, however. Reaganomics was a little shady, his response to the AIDS epidemic was quite late, and he did very little to help the Civil Rights Movement.  But he helped us not die in the Cold War, and he appointed Sandra Day O’Connor to the U.S. Supreme Court – the first woman to be appointed– so it wasn’t all bad.