In the early 1960s, Richard Avedon was commissioned by Harper’s Bazaar to create nine photographic essays. The subject of the first of these was future president John F. Kennedy and his young family, who sat for formal portraits just three weeks prior to Kennedy’s inauguration.

Richard Avedon donated more than two hundred images to the Smithsonian Institution, including all of the photographs of the Kennedy family sittings. Images have been culled from that donation for The Kennedys:? Portrait of a Family, making these stunning photographs available for view for the first time.

The introductory essay – accompanied by a wealth of archival photography of both Avedon and the Kennedy family – provides historical background on the two sittings and critically examines the work of one of the finest photographers of the twentieth century. A? foreword by Robert Dallek, distinguished historian and author of the bestselling An Unfinished Life:? John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963, provides authoritative and compelling insight to one of the most fascinating presidents in American history.