Donald Trump and the dying art of the courtroom sketch

Donald Trump appears in court in New York City, in a courtroom sketch by Jane Rosenberg. Jane Rosenberg/Reuters by Anita Lam, York University, Canada For the first time in its history, The New Yorker featured a courtroom sketch on its cover. The image, which appears on its April 17, 2023, issue, gives viewers a glimpse of a historic court proceeding that could not be captured by cameras: the arraignment hearing of Donald Trump two weeks earlier. Because Trump is the first former U.S. president to be criminally indicted, there is immense public interest in this case. However, when Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, his reactions and expressions could be visually recorded only by three approved courtroom artists. In a way, it was a throwback to an era when only artists could provide the public with visual records of court proceedings. Yet with more and more jurisdictions allowing cameras into courtrooms, courtroom artists now find themselves working in a dying field. Having studied both courtroom sketches and tabloid crime photography, I sometimes wonder what might be lost if courtroom art were to become extinct. The history of courtroom sketches Despite their dwindling numbers, courtroom...