President
Woodrow Wilson
John
Singer Sargent
-- American painter
1917
National
Gallery of
Ireland, Dublin
Oil on
canvas
153 x
109.2 cm (60 1/4
x 43 in.)
signed:
ul John Singer
Sargent
ur:
1917
Jpg:
local
President Woodrow
Wilson (1856–1924)
twenty-eighth president of the United States.
In 1917 JSS paints
the President
but unlike what you might assume, the painting isn't owned inside the
United
States but is owned by the National Gallery of Ireland. The reason for
this is explained in Sargent's own words in a letter to Mrs.
Gardner he wrote around the time of the portrait:
All
I know is that
Hugh Lane took up an idea started by another man (who repented) that he
would give 10,000 pounds to the Red Cross if I would paint his portrait
(the first man's). Hugh Lane of course had some other idea about whose
portrait it was to be. Then Hugh Lane was drowned [in the Lusitania].
He
had left his estate to the Nat. Gallery of Ireland, who had handed over
the 10,000 pounds to the Red Cross in 1916 and have lately decided the
portrait should be that of President Wilson.
(P. 255 Olson,
letter from JSS to
Mrs. Gardner)
Apparently, this time
around, Sargent
had a more enjoyable time painting the President then when he was
struggling
with Teddy. In a letter to Mary Hale, October 20, 1917 he described
the differences.
President
Theodore Roosevelt
1903
Sargent's painting
of Woodrow Wilson
was copied many time with Sargent's consent. One such copy was done by
Tmothy Cole which was widely printed.
Timothy
Cole
Woodcut
President Wilson
After
Sargent
Notes:
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