Monday, July 6, 2015

Molti Ritratti: Grace Coolidge

A while ago I posted about illustrator and portrait painter Howard Chandler Christy, and included an image of his portrait of Grace Coolidge, wife of President Calvin Coolidge.

It seems that Grace was somewhat the opposite of Calvin, in that she had a sparkling personality. So it stands to reason that given her status and attributes, there ought to have been a number of portraits painted of her.

And there were. Except that there are few decent images of them to be found on the Internet, and some original works might have gone missing. Below is what I've been able to locate here and there on the Web thus far.

Gallery

This is the official portrait by Christy that hangs in the White House.

A photo of Grace Coolidge.

Grace Coolidge with Rob Roy, who also is in the official portrait.

Another Grace Coolidge portrait attributed to Christie. It doesn't look as skillfully done as his other work, and the subject doesn't quite look like her.

A Christy portrait at the Coolidge Presidential Library in Massachusetts from this source. I like this one better than the official portrait. Too bad I can't locate a decent image of it on the Internet.

Grace Coolidge by an artist named Frank Ashford.

Photo of Juliet Thompson with her painting Grace Coolidge taken 8 February 1927. I could find no other image of this portrait.

Grace Coolidge with Frank O. Salisbury and his portrait of her. Again, I couldn't find an image of the portrait.

1 comment:

Julie Bartlett Nelson said...

The Christy portrait of Grace Coolidge at Forbes Library can be found at http://images.forbeslibrary.org/items/show/774. You are welcome to link to it or use it on a blog with credit to Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library & Museum, Forbes Library, Northampton, MA.
The other portrait was auctioned with no proof connecting it to Christy or Grace.
Julie Bartlett Nelson
Forbes Library