Sunday, June 28, 2020

Unfinished Portrait of Roosevelt

Elizabeth Shoumatoff started working on her watercolor portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt at about noon on April 12, 1945. 


During lunch, the President complained that he had "a terrific pain in the back of my head" and he slumped forward unconscious. FDR died later that day of a stroke. The painting was never finished.


Hank Green includes this story in a thoughtful video about what unfinished paintings can show us about their creators and subjects.
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3 comments:

  1. Susan KrzywickiJune 28, 2020 at 10:54 AM

    Thanks for sharing that - poignant, funny and it made me think.

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  2. Jim DouglasJune 28, 2020 at 11:40 AM

    Great video with John Green. As always, thank you for sharing with us, Jim. I clicked the link only to see the first few seconds, but got sucked in to watch the whole thing. I wish there was more. In these "coronavirus" times, it makes me realize how much I miss discussing art with friends & strangers, how much I hear it being discussed. Art is as important now as ever, maybe even more so. I invite anyone reading this to add the name of a work of art or artist that is currently speaking to you...

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  3. BevanJune 28, 2020 at 11:54 PM

    Jim Douglas, I have been looking over Norman Rockwell's work again. His presidential portraits and his civil rights paintings in particular.

    ReplyDelete

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