An official portrait of the late U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings was unveiled at the Capitol complex on Wednesday, reports The Hill.
Painted by Baltimore artist Jerrell Gibbs, the official portrait will hang in the House Committee on Oversight and Reform room inside the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC.
Before the portrait was unveiled at the Capitol, it was on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Drawing inspiration from Justin T. Gellerson's photograph, Gibbs' painting depicts Cummings in a blue suit holding a gavel in both his hands with the words, "We're Better Than This: My Fight for the Future of Our Democracy” on the inscription.
“This entire process has been a beautiful challenge," Gibbs said. "Being tasked with creating a painting of this magnitude for someone as important as the honorable Elijah Cummings to be permanently housed in a place of such significance as the United States Capitol building seemed like an insurmountable feat."
In a statement, Elijah’s widow Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings said she partnered with the museum's director, Christopher Bedford, and several other curators to commission the work.
"We are exceedingly pleased with the result. Jerrell Gibbs is a masterfully expressive painter and his stunning portrait perfectly captures Elijah's essence and majesty," she said.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) were among those who attended the ceremony.
“He was my Baltimore brother,” said Pelosi, who was also born in Maryland. “He was so astute, so smart, so wise, so strategic, and the rest, and that’s why he made such a big difference. He was a leader of towering integrity. Everybody knows that. A man whose life embodied the American dream,” Pelosi added, calling him “the north star of the House of Representatives.”
The son of a sharecropper, Cummings was born on Jan. 18, 1951, in Baltimore. He went on to graduate from Howard University with a BA in Political Science and earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Maryland. In 1983, he was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates.
After serving in the state house for 13 years, Cummings won a special election to represent Maryland's 7th congressional district in 1996. The seat was previously held by Kweisi Mfume, who left to become president and CEO of the NAACP. In total, he was reelected 11 times to represent the city of Baltimore in Congress which speaks to his unquestionable impact.
Cummings served as the chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform from January 2019 until he passed away in October of the same year.
Almost three years after his passing, Pelosi said that she still has Cummings on her speed dial.
“I can’t separate myself,” she said.“I go to it frequently and just try to think of what he would be thinking of what is going on.”
