(CNN) Two-year-old Parker Curry was so awestruck by the towering portrait of Michelle Obama that every time her mother would try to get her to turn around to take a picture, she would not stop staring at it.

"Parker was in front on the portrait, and I really wanted her to turn around so I could get a picture with her, and she genuinely, honestly would not turn around," her mother, Jessica Curry, a small business owner from Washington DC, told CNN on Saturday. "She was uncooperative with me because she was just so focused on the portrait and studying it, and she was just so fascinated."

The image of little Parker was captured by Ben Hines of North Carolina, who took a trip to the National Portrait Galley with his mother Donna, when he spotted a little girl in a pink coat entranced by the dramatic image of the former first lady. He posted the picture on his Facebook page and it quickly went viral.

Even the former first lady got to see a photo of Parker; she responded with a series of three heart-eyed, smiley-faced emojis after the painter of her portrait, Amy Sherald, posted it on Instagram.

Sherald, an African-American artist based in Baltimore, is known for her themes of social justice.

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