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99% Invisible

Courtroom Sketch

99% Invisible

SiriusXM Podcasts and Roman Mars

Arts, Design

4.828.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How courtroom artists became the preferred way to document trials.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is 99% invisible.

0:03.0

I'm Roman Mars.

0:04.0

Chung-chung.

0:07.0

Yep, I see him in the God of the in the prank he just waved.

0:10.0

Earlier this year, the city of New York closed off several blocks around the Manhattan

0:14.7

Criminal Courthouse. Instead of early morning commuters the sidewalks around the

0:19.0

building were flooded with reporters, photographers, and camera people.

0:23.0

They were there to capture the arraignment of former President Donald Trump. Members of the media were so desperate to get a good shot that they camped out

0:38.8

overnight outside the courthouse and it's because people all over the world demanded an immediate

0:44.4

visual record of this historic moment.

0:47.0

Viewers were hoping to watch Trump's perp walk into the courtroom or see his mug shot

0:52.2

or see a video of him being read his felony charges.

0:54.8

Instead the image that was everywhere from the Guardian to the Washington Post, even the cover of the

0:59.6

New Yorker. That image was a hand-drawn courtroom sketch.

1:05.0

I cannot stress to you how much I really, really, really did not want to begin this episode

1:11.0

talking about Donald Trump. But this was a really great

1:14.8

sketch. producer Vivian Lay. The sketch was done by a New York-based artist

1:19.3

named Jane Rosenberg. She portrayed Trump at a three-quarter profile, his arms crossed in a

1:25.1

defiant manner. Somehow Rosenberg managed to perfectly encapsulate his hair with

1:29.7

just a few messy strokes of an oil pastel. His face was frozen in a deep cutting scowl, emanating

1:36.4

what I can only describe as sour-puss energy. I've always found courtroom art fascinating.

1:44.0

When I look at a sketch, it doesn't feel like I'm looking at a moment frozen in time.

...

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