Picture Of Little Girl Awed By Portrait Of Michelle Obama Goes Viral

A picture of a little girl seemingly enthralled with the portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, went viral on the internet.

The picture posted on Thursday, by Ben Hines on Facebook, has over 20,000 likes and 31,000 shares so far. It has also been circulated across various social media platforms.

Ben from North Carolina, who was standing in line to view the portrait of Michelle at the National Portrait Gallery, along with his wife Donna Hines, took the picture on Thursday. He said, he just couldn’t resist a quick snap of the girl, who was mesmerized by the portrait.

He told Buzzfeed: "It was so touching and uplifting for me to see this beautiful child looking at a beautiful portrait of a powerful woman, I was so delighted to have been in the right place at the right time."

Donna, who seemed to share a similar sentiment as her husband said everyone around the little girl watched the endearing moment.

"It's hard to describe in words," Donna told Buzzfeed. "She had such wonder on her face and her entire body just stopped as she looked at her, and she had this wonder that was silent and yet seemed to be saying something very big at the same time."

The girl in the picture, 2-year-old Parker Curry accompanied her Mother Jessica Curry and sister, 1-year-old Ava Curry, to the gallery to view the portrait of Barack and Michelle Obama.

"I was trying to get her to turn around so I could take a picture, but she wouldn't cooperate," Jessica told Buzzfeed. "She just wanted to stare at it. She was fascinated."

The moment clearly resonates with the words used by Michelle, during her speech at the time when her portrait was unveiled in February, by artist Amy Sherald at the National Portrait Gallery.

During her speech at the gallery Michelle Obama said "I’m also thinking about all of the young people, particularly girls and girls of color, who, in years ahead, will come to this place and they will look up and they will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the wall of this great American institution."

Artist Amy Sherald, who came across the picture was moved by the the moment. She shared the picture on her Instagram account.

Sherald Wrote:

"Feeling all the feels. _ When I look at this picture I think back to my first field trip in elementary school to a museum. I had only seen paintings in encyclopedias up to that point in my life. There was a show up of work by painter @thebobartlett whose work still inspires me to this day. There was a painting of a black man standing in front of a house. I don't remember a lot about my childhood, but I do have a few emotional memories etched into my mind forever and seeing that painting of a man that looked like he could be my father stopped me dead in my tracks. This was my first time seeing real paintings that weren't in a book and also weren't painted in another century. I didn't realize that none of them had me in them until I saw that painting of Bo's. I knew I wanted to be an artist already, but seeing that painting made me realize that I could. What dreams may come? #representationmatters"