When Jan Beekman saw Nelson Mandela emerge from 27 years in prison in 1990, he felt compelled to capture what he saw - Mandela's serene smile, his positivity in the face of all he'd gone through - in a portrait.

Beekman, a renowned artist who lives in Preston, recalled in June, when Mandela was hospitalized, of what inspired him. "It started in the beginning with his endurance, then it ended with the hope that he represented ... and the hope for the world."

So Beekman began working. Over the course of three years, he toiled, creating and building on ideas until he developed the final version.

The result, a glorious 72-by-72-inch acrylic work, was completed in 1996.

At first, Beekman, who never met Mandela, kept the painting in his studio. He didn't want to sell it and didn't want it to end up in a private collection. Ultimately, he and the Belgian government - Beekman grew up in Belgium before becoming a U.S. citizen - presented the final product to the United Nations in 2007.

Beekman's portrait still hangs at U.N. headquarters in New York City. Right now, as renovations are happening, it has been moved to the annex, a temporary building next door.

It eventually will be returned to the corridor leading to the Security Council Chamber. Visitors who want to see the portrait there need to have an escort set up ahead of time. Security is tight in certain areas of the U.N., particularly on the level where the painting is, next to the General Assembly and the Security Council.

Beekman's wife, Gillian Lane-Plescia, recalled that a lot of people from Africa who were at the ceremony when the portrait was given to the U.N. "felt that there was something about the way Jan caught his expression that was that man."

Lane-Plescia noted, too, that Beekman's painting of Mandela "with that very positive and hopeful expression turned out to be accurate in terms of what he accomplished" after getting out of prison.

k.dorsey@theday.com