Tony Bennett [ tickets ]'s painting of Duke Ellington has been accepted into the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, according to a press release. It is Bennett's third painting to be included in Smithsonian collections; Bennett's oil painting of Central Park was accepted into the Smithsonian American Art Museum's permanent collection in 2006, and his portrait of Ella Fitzgerald was acquired by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in 2002.

"It is an enormous honor to now have three of my paintings in collections at the Smithsonian and it is something that I would never have imagined when I started out as a young child drawing with chalk on the sidewalks of my hometown in Astoria, Queens," Bennett said in a statement. "Painting has been a lifelong passion of mine and the portrait of Duke Ellington is my favorite painting of all and it is a thrill to know it will have a permanent home at such a prestigious institution as the National Portrait Gallery."

Bennett's watercolor painting, titled "God Is Love," depicts Ellington with a bouquet of pink roses in the background. The motif commemorates Ellington's late-in-life habit of sending Bennett a dozen pink roses when he wrote a new song.

National Portrait Gallery director Martin Sullivan said, "We are thrilled to have this painting. Think of it: Anthony Benedetto--Tony Bennett--the son of Italian immigrants, portraying his mentor Duke Ellington, the grandson of a slave. There was great affection between these two outstanding contributors to America's musical heritage."

The painting will be presented in a special ceremony in April 2009 at the National Portrait Gallery. The date will mark the 110th anniversary of Ellington's birth.