Cecilia Beaux, WWI Commissions

"Leslie Buswell" by Cecilia Beaux

Cecilia Beaux wrote: "In the spring of 1919, a committee was formed of men and women, prominent in our social and financial world, for the purpose of getting together a series of portraits of the outstanding figures of the War; these portraits to be presented, finally, to the United States Government. A group of artists, five in number, was chosen to do this work. To each artist was assigned three portraits, to be painted, for the most part, abroad, for the chief interest in the undertaking lay in the fact that most of the subjects were to be Europeans of whom only photographs were likely ever to appear in this country, or be owned here, at any rate, by our Government.

The secretary of the committee called on me, and asked me to undertake to go abroad and execute three of these portraits. I accepted with a full sense of the significance and interest of the commission. I was told that the three to be entrusted to me were Cardinal Mercier, [Georges] Clemenceau, and Admiral Lord Beatty.

I realized the responsibility of this undertaking very keenly, and felt that I must approach it with the knowledge that there should be brought to it much more than my mere equipment as an artist. Great portraits of great people are very rare. Art is a jealous mistress when asked to divide the honors with a great personality, and refuses to wait on the scant times and seasons such persons are willing to spare - hurried half-hours here and there.

This is an apology. Whatever is lacking in the result - which of course fell far behind my hopes - I may lay the story of my adventure, a small wreath among the heaped tributes that lie along the pathway of the great..."

Paris - May - and the War over. Best of all we had a friend there - Henry Davis Sleeper - who had left his creative pursuits in the fine arts for participation in the War. He, for a day or two, gave us the precious experience of a trip to the devastated region under his guidance. We saw Rheims, Noyons, Soissons and the rest. Huge piles of rusty barbed wire and empty shells were stacked in order, just beyond the road edge. We moved over the perfect roads in a little French service car. Why, so near to death and ruin, were we so blessed?

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Background with Figures" by Cecilia Beaux.