You’ve probably seen the grainy photo or heard the hushed whispers about it. A former U.S. President, lounging in a high-backed chair, wearing a bright blue dress and red high heels. It sounds like a fever dream or a cheap Photoshop job from the dark corners of the internet. But it’s real. The Bill Clinton dress painting is a genuine piece of oil-on-canvas art that spent years hanging in one of the most infamous residences in New York City.
When federal agents raided Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in 2019, the world was already bracing for a lot of dark secrets. What people didn't expect was a piece of satirical art to become the face of a million conspiracy theories. It’s a weird story. Honestly, it’s one where the reality of the artist's intent is a far cry from the sinister vibes the public attached to it.
The story behind "Parsing Bill"
The actual title of the work is Parsing Bill. It wasn't commissioned by a secret society or intended as a blackmail tool. It was actually a school project.
Back in 2012, an Australian-American artist named Petrina Ryan-Kleid was a graduate student at the New York Academy of Art. She was working on her Master’s thesis and decided to create a pair of satirical paintings about American presidents. The Bill Clinton dress painting was one half of that project. The other? A painting of George W. Bush sitting on the floor of the Oval Office, playing with paper airplanes and Jenga blocks.
Why a blue dress? It’s a pretty direct jab at the Monica Lewinsky scandal that defined the Clinton administration in the 90s. The red heels were just an extra bit of flair to lean into the "caricature" aspect. Ryan-Kleid wasn't trying to make a deep political statement about Clinton's personal life. She was basically just exploring how the media and the public view powerful figures through the lens of their biggest scandals.
👉 See also: Martha Stewart Young Modeling: What Most People Get Wrong
How did it end up with Jeffrey Epstein?
This is the part that creeps people out. The artist didn't sell it to Epstein directly. In fact, she had no idea he even owned it until the news broke years later.
In 2012, the New York Academy of Art held its annual fundraiser, the Tribeca Ball. Students often sell their work there to wealthy donors to help fund the school and kickstart their careers. Parsing Bill was sold during that event. Ryan-Kleid walked away with her degree, and the painting disappeared into a private collection.
It wasn't until 2019, following Epstein’s arrest and subsequent death, that a photo taken by a visitor to his $56 million home surfaced. The painting was hanging in a room off a stairway, positioned so that anyone walking through the house would basically have to see it. It’s a jarring image to see in a billionaire’s home, especially given Clinton’s documented history of flying on Epstein’s private jet.
The "Other" blue dress painting
If you search for the Bill Clinton dress painting, you might stumble across a second, entirely different controversy. This one involves Nelson Shanks, a world-renowned portrait artist who was commissioned to paint Clinton’s official portrait for the National Portrait Gallery.
✨ Don't miss: Ethan Slater and Frankie Grande: What Really Happened Behind the Scenes
That painting looks totally normal at first glance. It’s Clinton standing by a mantel in the Oval Office. No heels, no blue fabric. But in 2015, Shanks dropped a bombshell in an interview with the Philadelphia Daily News. He admitted that the shadow falling across the mantelpiece was actually cast by a blue dress he had set up on a mannequin while working on the piece.
"The shadow is also a bit of a metaphor in that it represents a shadow on the office he held, or on him," Shanks said at the time.
So, you have two different artists, years apart, using the exact same symbol—a blue dress—to "troll" the former president. One was an overt satire by a student, and the other was a "hidden" message in an official Smithsonian portrait.
Why the internet won't let it go
People love a good mystery. When you combine a former president, a convicted sex offender, and a painting that looks like a hidden clue, you get a perfect storm for viral content.
🔗 Read more: Leonardo DiCaprio Met Gala: What Really Happened with His Secret Debut
The internet spent months "parsing" Parsing Bill. Some pointed out that the dress looked like one Hillary Clinton wore to the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors. Others thought the pose—curled up in a chair, pointing a finger—was some kind of occult signal.
The truth is much more boring. Ryan-Kleid used a male model named Christophe Nayel to pose for the painting. He sat in a chair, she painted him, and then she swapped his face for Clinton’s. It was a stylistic choice, not a coded message.
Actionable takeaways for the curious
If you're trying to track down the painting or understand its place in history, here is the current state of play:
- The Original Painting: Its current location is unknown. Following the seizure of Epstein’s assets and the clearing of his Manhattan townhouse, many of his belongings were moved or sold, but the specific whereabouts of Parsing Bill haven't been made public.
- The Artist's Stance: Petrina Ryan-Kleid has largely moved on. She was "confounded" by the discovery and has since worked in social media marketing and continued her art privately. She has expressed regret that a "silly school artwork" became tied to such a dark legacy.
- Official Portrait Status: The Nelson Shanks portrait (with the secret shadow) is still part of the National Portrait Gallery’s collection, though it isn't always on public display.
- Seeing it Yourself: You can't see the original Ryan-Kleid work in a museum. However, because she uploaded the image to Saatchi Art years ago, prints of the work occasionally pop up on the secondary market.
Basically, the painting is a weird footnote in a much larger, much darker story. It’s a reminder of how easily art can be stripped of its original meaning once it enters the home of someone with a notorious reputation.
To dig deeper into the actual art history of the era, you should look into the New York Academy of Art's archives or research Nelson Shanks' other presidential works. Understanding the context of satirical art in the early 2010s helps separate the "conspiracy" from the "canvas."