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:

    To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.
    Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)

    My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.
    Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)