Philip de Laszlo: Portraits of the Roosevelts

"Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, née Edith Kermit Carow"
by Philip de Laszlo

"Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt" by
Philip de Laszlo

At a garden party at Windsor, Philip de Laszlo had met Mr. Arthur Lee, Viscount of Fareham, who was a good friend of the American president, Theodore Roosevelt. Lee was an art connoisseur and appreciated de Laszlo's talent so much that he asked him to go to Washington D.C. to paint a portrait of Roosevelt. After a rough ocean voyage, the de Laszlos were ushered into the Blue Room at the White House and enjoyed meeting the President and his wife over luncheon.

De Laszlo wrote: "The President gave me the first sitting on the following afternoon, when I decided to make sketches to catch a characteristic attitude. When I asked him how he would like to be painted he said he would prefer to wear riding clothes, since he spent all day in his rock coat, and Sargent had painted an official portrait of him thus. This official picture, hanging on the staircase of the White house, depicts Roosevelt in front of a balustrade with his right hand holding its ornamental ball, as though it were the globe.

'I do not wish to be painted again as if grasping the world,' said Roosevelt, 'I like myself on horseback, free from any tether, and cutting through the air.' And I painted him so. He gave me as many sittings as I required to enable me to finish the portrait entirely from life. I appreciated this very much, the more so because I saw that every moment of his day was occupied by his official duties. The longer I was in his company, the more I learned to like and to admire him.

He gave me ten sittings in all, each lasting about an hour and a half, and I also received permission to make a sketch of Mrs. Roosevelt. 'But if you paint my wife,' said the President before I began, 'it must be a good portrait and must bring out her charm, because I am in love with her.'"

Roosevelt reported back enthusiastically to his English friend Arthur Lee. "I took a great fancy to Laszlo himself," he wrote, "and it is the only picture which I really enjoyed having painted." Laszlo encouraged the President to invite guests to the sittings to keep Roosevelt entertained. "And if there weren't any visitors," said Roosevelt, "I would get Mrs. Laszlo, who is a trump, to play the violin on the other side of the screen."

De Laszlo wrote: "Before I left the White House the President wrote the following inscription in my sitters' signature book: 'With the hearty thanks and good will of Theodore Roosevelt, the White House, March 22nd, 1908. Much though I like your picture of me, for it is a picture as well as a portrait, I like even better your sketch of Mrs. Roosevelt.' We left Washington with many happy memories."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Portrait of a Painter" by Owen Rutter and from The National Portrait Gallery website: https://npg.si.edu/exh/roosevelt/lamb.htm )