Gari Melchers: Portrait of a President

"President Theodore Roosevelt"
by Gari Melchers

"President Theodore Roosevelt is, without doubt, the most noteworthy of the many individuals painted by Gari Melchers. Indeed, that a public figure as important and well known as Theodore Roosevelt sat for the artist is indicative of Melchers' high reputation as a portraitist. The painting was commissioned by the Detroit industrialist and art collector Charles Freer and was painted during sittings at the White House on ten consecutive days in late February and early March 1908. The artist charged Freer $2,500 for the painting, roughly equivalent to $64,000 today. Freer considered the portrait a token of appreciation for the president's help in facilitating the Smithsonian Institution's acceptance of his vast art collection.

Melchers' picture presents the popular image of the man. The president is dressed in riding boots and jacket and holds gloves and a riding crop. This attire alludes to the role he played as organizer and commander of the Roughriders cavalry regiment, whose famous charge up San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War captured the imagination of the American people and won Roosevelt national attention. Teddy was also known for his abundant energy and was thought of as the champion and practitioner of what he termed 'the strenuous life.' Roosevelt wanted his expression to be that of 'the man that sent the fleet around the world,' and once completed, he expressed satisfaction with it.

Always looking for consistent, indirect north light while painting, Melchers did the same at the White House. He wrote his wife that 'Mrs. Roosevelt took me around upstairs and downstairs to fine a suitable studio and we decided on the small dining room which has a north light.' The diary that Melchers kept during the ten days of work includes a detailed account of the procedure followed by the artist in painting a portrait. After working out the pose in a small sketch, Melchers roughed in the entire picture on larger canvas. He wrote his wife: 

'I am almost dead after working from 10 until 1:30 without a rest - only once for five minutes did Mr. President leave me. I began this morning with the charcoal on the canvas but soon took hold of the paint and brushes - and nearly covered the entire canvas. We were alone most of the time. Toward noon Mrs. Roosevelt with her sister and little boy Quentin came in from church and they all seemed very much pleased... Everybody in the White House seems to watch my performance with great interest and if nothing happens perhaps it will all come out well.' 

During the next four sittings he focused exclusively on the face and the head. On day eight, Melchers temporarily 'abandoned the head... to go to the rest of the picture and worked on the waistcoat and coat,' only to return to the face and head on the following day. Faces are, indeed, the most detailed part of the image in this and other portraits by Melchers.

Afterwards Roosevelt wrote Melchers saying that he 'considered the painting the best that had ever been done of him, and Freer predicted that it would always be considered the one that captured the 'dignity, force and character' of the president. 'Art is a language,' he wrote to Melchers, 'and your portrait will talk to the people through coming centuries.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Gari Melchers: His Life and Art" by Joseph G. Dreiss and from an article by Michelle Crow-Dolby on the Gari Melchers Home & Studio website.)