During a break in testimony at a New York courtroom, Donald Trump Jr. appealed to the courtroom sketch artist: “Make me look sexy.”
Trump Jr. spent several hours on the witness stand, testifying in the case that could stifle the family real estate business.
The veteran courtroom sketch artist, Jane Rosenberg, said Trump Jr. suggested, as an example, the courtroom sketch of Sam Bankman-Fraud Fried that has been circulating on the internet. Junior said it made the cryptocurrency criminal look like a “superstar.”
Rosenberg produced the iconic image of Former Guy Donald Trump when she sketched his profile in a Manhattan arraignment in April.
While Rosenberg did not produce the fakey sketch of Sam Bankman-Fried, she has produced art from some very high profile cases.
Rosenberg has taken heat in the past for sketches of former New England Patriots star Tom Brady that some of the boyish-looking quarterback’s fans said bore a closer resemblance to the Incredible Hulk.
Rosenberg also sketched Ghislaine Maxwell, who in turn, was sketching Rosenberg herself.
CBS aired an interview earlier this week that featured Jane Rosenberg, seen below.
Courtroom drawing as we know it in the United States was born in response to the 1935 media circus over the kidnapping and killing of aviator Charles Lindbergh’s infant son. After newsreel cameras, noisy shutters, tripods, and bright flashing lights overtook the court, the American Bar Association put forth a ban on cameras—leaving news outlets to seek alternate means of coverage.
Emmy-nominated courtroom artist Bill Robles explains that the media needs a visual. “An artist is surely not a camera, but by the same token an artist can do what the camera cannot do,” said Robles.
The sketch artist can condense a composition, work around obstructions, but also have the unique ability to edit and distill the day’s drama and emotion into a single frame.