The man who posed up for a painting of Bill Clinton wearing a blue dress and bright red heels which was later purchased by pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has spoken out over his shock regarding the artwork’s now infamous status.
Titled ‘Parsing Bill’, the painting was created by then New York Academy of Art student Petrina Ryan-Kleid and depicts the former president lounging on a chair in the Oval Office and posing suggestively, with the blue gown redolent of Monica Lewinsky.
It was later purchased by Epstein and exhibited in a room off the stairway of his Upper East Side mansion.
However, Christophe Nayal, a French model who has been posing for students at the New York Academy of Art since 2001, said he was ‘stunned’ to find out where the now ill-famed piece wound up.
‘I was absolutely stunned to find out that Epstein bought [the] painting during a major event at the school,’ Chris Nayal told Artnet News. ‘Some past students even recognized my legs in that painting.’
Christophe Nayal (left) who posed up for a painting of Bill Clinton wearing a blue dress and bright red heels (right) which was later purchased by pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has spoken out over his shock regarding the artwork’s now infamous status
Nayal, a French model, said he was ‘stunned’ to find out where the now ill-famed piece wound up, adding that ‘Some past students even recognized my legs in that painting’
How source saw it: Jeffrey Epstein had a bizarre portrait of Bill Clinton hanging in his Manhattan mansion, depicting the former president lounging on a chair in the Oval Office wearing red heels and an open-necked blue dress, a source exclusively told DailyMailTV
Artist Ryan-Kleid aired similar shock about the 2012 painting being hung in the convicted pedophile’s home, recalling the piece to have been bought anonymously for around $1,300 during the school’s 2012 Tribeca Ball.
‘I had no idea who the buyer was at the time,’ Ryan-Kleid told the NY Post. ‘As with most of my paintings, I had completely lost track of this piece when it was sold. So it was a complete surprise to me to learn that it wound up in Epstein’s home.’
A picture of the painting first obtained by DailyMail.com was secretly snapped inside the pedophile’s lavish $56 million home in October 2012, four years after Epstein completed his sweetheart deal for prostitution of a minor and seven years before he was accused of running a sex trafficking ring of underage girls.
The painting’s existence only came into light after the former financier’s suicide in a Manhattan jail cell on August 10.
A picture of the painting first obtained by DailyMail.com was secretly snapped inside the pedophile’s lavish $56 million home in October 2012, four years after Epstein completed his sweetheart deal for prostitution of a minor and seven years before he was accused of running a sex trafficking ring of underage girls. At one time, Epstein and Bill Clinton (right) were friends, with the former President flying on Epstein’s ‘Lolita Express’ private jet numerous times
Titled ‘Parsing Bill’, the painting was created by then New York Academy of Art student Petrina Ryan-Kleid and depicts the former president lounging on a chair in the Oval Office and posing suggestively, with the blue gown redolent of Monica Lewinsky, and a frock Hilary Clinton wore at the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors (seen above)
It was later purchased by Epstein and exhibited in a room off the stairway of his Upper East Side mansion (pictured above)
In the weeks since, Ryan-Kleid, who is originally from Australia, says she’s been overwhelmed by the reaction to her work and has sought to address a series of misinterpretations surrounding the image, which has since gone viral.
‘I live a quiet life, and I really just had a naive, newly arrived foreigner’s idea for a thesis,’ she said of the painting’s series, which also included a working of George W. Bush playing with blocks and paper airplanes called War Games.
‘It was just a silly school artwork that was supposed to show, pictorially, the messages we are bombarded with in regards to these presidents,’ adding the Clinton’s comical portrait was making a conscious reference to Lewinsky’s dress.
Ryan-Kleid has since voiced remorse for the painting’s content, saying: ‘Since I’m Australian, I wasn’t then, nor am I now, partisan about American politics,’ she told Artnet. ‘At the time, most of my ideas were fresh from the Daily Show or from Australian cable TV.’
She added that both Parsing Bill and War Games are about how ‘opposition parties caricature presidents,’ and that ‘neither painting shouldn’t be taken literally.’
Christophe Nayal (left and right) has been posing for students at the New York Academy of Art since 2001. He said he was ‘stunned’ to learn Epstein had purchased the painting
Small prints of the Parsing Bill work are still listed for sale through the online gallery Saatchi Art, which has seen a surge in demand since Epstein’s death – a phenomenon Ryan-Kleid says she’s uncomfortable with.
The artist said she’s child a number of times to have the painting removed from the site, but so far all such attempts have been unsuccessful.
Epstein and Clinton were once friends, with the now 72-year-old flying on the now deceased financier’s private plane, dubbed the Lolita Express, several times and on his own account vising the town house once – making it possible he could have seen the bizarre painting.
Clinton has however denied ever stepping foot on Epstein’s ‘pedophile island,’ Little St. James – a denial which Donald Trump sought to cast doubt on last week.
The presence of the picture became a new twist in the relationship between Clinton, his family and Epstein.
Last month the former president’s office said he had not known anything of Epstein’s crimes and had taken four trips with him in 2002 and 2003 – although flight logs showed that he had taken a total of at least 26 individual flights in the course of those.
One of Epstein’s former sex slaves, Virginia Roberts, claimed she saw Clinton on the island for a dinner held in his honor shortly after he left office, and stood by the claim when questioned under oath.