Molti Ritratti: Duke of Wellington

Some of my Molti Ritratti (many portraits) posts dealt with subjects who lived before the invention of photography. Others lived in the photographic era and had comparatively few portrait paintings made of them. Then there is the interesting situation where most of the subject's life was lived before photography, yet an image or two might exist. Such was the case for Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), subject of this post. The same is true for Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), a near contemporary of Jackson.

The two led lives that mirrored each other in some important respects, though Jackson was born into humble circumstances of immigrant parents from Ireland, whereas Wellesley (his father spelled the family name "Wesley") was of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy. Both men became generals and fought important battles (New Orleans for Jackson and Waterloo for Wellington). Both became the political leader of their country (Jackson as President, Wellington as Prime Minister). And both sat to a number of portraits.

Below are images of Wellington.

This is a daguerreotype taken in 1844, if the information I found on the Web is correct. Wellington would have been about age 75.

This portrait is by John Jackson, a painter who was well known in his day, but is obscure enough that I hadn't heard of him before. The painting was probably made not many years before Jackson's death in1831.

These portraits were painted by George Hayter, yet another painter new to me. Hayter also painted Queen Victoria and other notables. The upper painting was made in 1839. I have no date for the lower one, but from Wellington's appearance it might have been done near the time of the Jackson work.

Here is one of the better-known Wellington portraits. It is by Francisco Goya, painted in 1812 as Wellington was nearing his final defeat of French forces in Spain.

The final three portraits are by Sir Thomas Lawrence, the leading English portraitist of the early 19th century. The one at the top is the best-known, and usually used when a depiction of Wellington is needed. It was painted around 1815-16, not long after Waterloo. The middle painting was commissioned in 1820 and probably completed within a year or two of that date. It looks suspiciously like it was to some degree a copy of the earlier painting (for instance, note the similarity of the nose shadows). I have no date for the final portrait, though from Wellington's appearance it was made after 1820 and before Lawrence's death in 1830. It strikes me as inferior to the first two.

Multi Ritratti: Hazel Martyn Lavery

Sir John Lavery (1856-1941) was orphaned, yet through determination and ability rose to become one of Britain's foremost portrait artists.

Despite his busy career, Lavery found time to paint numerous portraits of his favorite subject, Hazel (1886-1935), his second wife. Biographical information on the Laverys can be found via the links above.

I'm likely to devote an entire post to Lavery some day, so won't say much more here other than that even though he is best known as a portrait painter, I think his best work dealt with landscapes. His portraits convey their subjects, but his brushwork seems fussier than I think it should be.

Let us now feast our eyes on the lovely Hazel.

Gallery

Photo by E.O. Hoppé - 1916

Hazel Martyn
Apparently painted before their 1909 marriage, though I can't independently confirm the date.

Mrs. Lavery Sketching - 1910
She also was an artist.

Hazel in Rose and Gold - 1918

Red Rose - 1923

Lady Lavery - 1922

Lady Lavery as Kathleen Ní Houlihan - 1928

Irish 20 pound banknote
The painting above served as the basis for an image engraved for Irish currency of various denominations.

Lady Lavery - 1934
Painted not long before her death.

Molti Ritratti: Winston Churchill

I assume all those reading this post know who Winston Churchill was, but that assumption might be resting on thin ice, given the quality of educational systems in the USA and some other countries.

He is surely best known to posterity via photography and film, rather than from painted portraits. Nevertheless, portraits of him were painted. Some are presented below in approximate reverse-chronological order.

Gallery

By Yousuf Karsh - 1941
So I changed my mind. Let's start with Karsh's iconic photographic portrait to set the scene.

By Andy Thomas
This is posthumous, but I don't have a date. I doubt that Churchill would ever have posed with cigar and whisky. Nor could he have held a smile very long while posing.

By Bernard Hailstone - 1955
A site showing this image states that it was his last official portrait.

By Graham Sutherland - 1954
This is the portrait that his wife Clementine famously had destroyed after he died. I can't blame her, though one can find defenders of Sutherland's work if you Google a little.

By Paul Wyeth
I could find no documentation about this one, but it clearly commemorates Churchill's induction as a Companion of the Order of the Garter.

By Frank Mason - 1952
I have no background on this painting either.

By Douglas Granville Chandor - 1946
This was painted after the war when Churchill was no longer Prime Minister. He is shown in the uniform of the Royal Air Force, in which he held honorary status.

By Walter Sickert - 1927
Apparently Sickert, a friend of Clementine, gave Winston some tips on how to paint and did this portrait sketch.

By William Orpen - 1916
In 1916 Churchill was back in the army following his resignation as Admiralty First Lord, so I'm not clear as to when Orpen actually painted this. I suspect 1916 is the completion date and the bulk of the work was done earlier.

By John Lavery - 1915
This was probably done when Churchill was still First Lord.

Molti Ritratti: Edith Minturn Phelps-Stokes

Edith Minturn Stokes (1867–1937) and her husband Isaac Newton (I.N.) Phelps Stokes are the subject of a famous painting by John Singer Sargent, now residing in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I couldn't find much biographical information about Edith. Wikipedia has this entry on Isaac, but more about Edith can be found here.

However, the images below do indicate that Edith was a very attractive woman.

Gallery

The Minturn sisters
Edith is at the right of the photograph.

By Carl and Fredrika Weidner - c.1895
The original is a miniature. Edith is at the left.

By Daniel Chester French - Statue of the Republic
Edith posed for French's giant statue for the 1893 Chicago fair. A smaller version was made in 1918, and that is the one shown above. More information about the statues is here.

By Fernand Paillet - 1892
This must have been painted about the time French was working on the statue.

By Cecilia Beaux - 1898
Beaux was an ace portrait painter who had the thankless task of painting Edith a year after Sargent created his masterpiece version of. Beaux was very good, but comparing the two versions of Edith, it's hard to dispute that Sargent was even better. Well, flashier, anyway.

Molti Ritratti: John F Kennedy

President John F. Kennedy (1917-63), as we all know, did not serve even one full term in office. So if portraits of him were to be painted while President, there was less opportunity than usual.

On the other hand, Kennedy was the subject of thousands of photographs, and it is through these that we shape our visual image of the man. Those photographs also served as the basis for posthumous portrait paintings created by both professionals and amateurs. Below are examples of Kennedy portraits done by professionals. Some were painted while he was alive, others later. And some paintings done before his 22 November 1963 death might have been entirely photograph-based.

Gallery

By Norman Rockwell - 1960
The Saturday Evening Post magazine would sometimes feature covers with paintings of presidential candidates in the weeks leading up to an election. The painting shown above was published in its 29 October 1960 issue. I don't know if Rockwell saw Kennedy in person while working up the image. He was able to spend an hour and a half with Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 in conjunction with a Post cover appearing before the voting that year.

By Cecil Calvert Beall - 1962
This looks like it might have been done from life, but I have no solid proof.

By Elaine de Kooning - 1962
This was probably done from life because it is known that Kennedy sat for her.

By William Franklin Draper - 1962
Also probably done from life.

Sketch by Bernie Fuchs
Fuchs was an illustrator and not yet a fine-arts painter when he visited the White House to make sketches of the President. David Apatoff posted useful information about it here.

By Daniel Greene - pastel, 1963
I have no information as to whether this was done before or after JFK's 1963 death. And if it was done before, I don't know if Greene did it from life.

By Bernie Fuchs
I don't have a date for this, but it was probably painted on the basis of photographs and the sketches mentioned above.

By Jamie Wyeth - 1967
Clearly posthumous.

By Aaron Shikler - 1970
This is the official White House portrait of Kennedy, painted years after he died.

I apologize for the information gaps noted in the captions above. If readers can supply facts regarding whether or not Kennedy actually sat for the unverified (in my remarks) portraits created in his lifetime, please let us know via a comment.

Molti Ritratti: Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) liked to portray people in his novels and, in turn, apparently didn't seem to mind being portrayed by some of Russia's best-known artists.

Those artists included Nikolai Ge (1831-94), Ivan Kramskoy (1837-87), Ilya Repin (1844-1930) and Mikhail Nesterov (1862-1942). Repin painted several portraits of the famed writer.

Unlike a beautiful woman in her simplicity, Tolstoy as he aged presented a feast of details to tempt the skills of portrait painters -- a craggy face, a bifurcated beard, rugged hands, peasant costuming and other paintable features of his persona. Below are some photographs and paintings of him.

Gallery

Photo - c.1897

Photo - 1908

By Ivan Kramskoy - 1873

By Nikolai Ge - 1884

By Ilya Repin - 1887

By Ilya Repin - 1891

By Ilya Repin: Tolstoy and his wife in Yasnaya Polyana - 1907

By Mikhail Nesterov - 1907