Unfinished Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt - History

History

In 1943, painter Elizabeth Shoumatoff was told by her friend and client Lucy Mercer Rutherford "You should really paint the President. He has such a remarkable face. There is no painting of him that gives his true expression. I think you could do a wonderful portrait, and he would be such an interesting person to paint! Would you do a portrait of him if it was arranged?" Rutherford would go on to make the arrangements, with Shoumatoff agreeing to sit in for two days within 2 weeks time. She said of the agreement: "I was trapped into something I had neither wished for nor planned." She went on to talk about not being able to turn down the honor of being selected for a Presidential commission.

Read more about this topic:  Unfinished Portrait Of Franklin D. Roosevelt

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Bias, point of view, fury—are they ... so dangerous and must they be ironed out of history, the hills flattened and the contours leveled? The professors talk ... about passion and point of view in history as a Calvinist talks about sin in the bedroom.
    Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)

    The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.
    Willa Cather (1876–1947)

    Every member of the family of the future will be a producer of some kind and in some degree. The only one who will have the right of exemption will be the mother ...
    Ruth C. D. Havens, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)