![]() ![]() The President even ventured into the home’s library from time to time as Salisbury brought Mrs. Salisbury was ready for the First Lady after three, short days. With Salisbury highly regarded for his accuracy and speed with the brush, the President and First Lady quite accustomed to sitting for artists, and finally the setting’s natural beauty and architectural majesty, it did not take long to complete the customary twin portraits. Salisbury arrived in Washington and was welcomed along with the Presidential entourage as they headed south via rail. It was through American Antiquarian Society member Clarence Bowen that Salisbury secured commission to complete a portrait of President Coolidge to be done while the Chief Executive and First Lady stayed on Sapelo Island, off the coast of Georgia, as guests of Howard and Matilda Coffin in December of 1928. He established himself as a painter of historical, allegorical, and portraiture work, the last for which he was best known. Frank apprenticed to his brother’s stained-glass workshop and manifested an early aptitude for detailed painting on the various glass projects they produced. Salisbury was the son of a plumber/glazier from Great Britain. ![]() He continued to work to the last and died quietly in his studio, surrounded by some of his final projects, at the age of 80 (in 1952). Christy (self-portrait in 5/7) went on, of course, to paint historical and allegorical murals in the 30s and 40s, the best known being his “Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States” (6/7) completed in 1940 and now displayed at the Capitol. Yet, Christy demonstrates a growing skill and captures famous men in later work, like Will Rogers in 1935 (7/7). ![]() Christy’s strength was always in depicting ladies and in trying to portray President Coolidge, he struggles and even falls short (2/7). Of course, most of us have probably heard Cal’s suggestion that Grace be painted in her more characteristic white while, if there has to be red anywhere, they just paint the dog. He turned to portraiture in the 1 920s and painted the Coolidges first in 1923 (with the First Lady in off-white, 1/7, both President and First Lady can be seen at Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts) then again – even more famously – in a second life-size portrait with red gown alongside the Coolidges’ beloved white collie, Rob Roy, completed in 1924 at the White House (preliminary watercolor in 3/7 and then in oil on canvas, 4/7). Coming to fame as he worked alongside Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” in combat during the Spanish-American War, Christy established himself as both a wartime illustrator (his recruiting posters, including the “Christy Girl” during the Great War, were cultural icons) and definer of female beauty. Philip de LaszloĬhristy is best known for his work as an illustrator in what was then the blossoming field of magazine cover and advertisement art. There is an enigmatic veneer of varying degrees in each of the Coolidges and while more than one writer has found success in peering beyond that veil, artists as a whole have proven much more successful in peeling back the layers and in sharing their artistic love and admiration for Cal and his family with us all. While the written word has conquered many an otherwise impossible challenge and will continue proving its might on a thousand battlefields, artists often catch what writers overlook, discovering elusive, intangible qualities that bring them closer to understanding the person than a million words ever could. Each catches something in their subjects others miss. These features will be grouped by the specialty of each artist’s medium: the painters, the sculptors, the engravers, and the illustrators. The list of those who sought to give honor where honor was due through their unique skills, be it with canvas and brush, chisel and stone, or paper and ink, still live to continue sharing with each of us what they saw with all the goodness and joy it gave them. Perhaps you, wonderful reader, can help in shedding more light on the lives and work of those recognized here. The list is surprisingly rich with a cornucopia of personalities, cultural interconnections, and delightful stories along the way. In the spirit of Giorgio Vasari’s great series of biographies, Le Vite (itself a tribute to Plutarch’s classic, Lives), we offer features to each of the portrait painters, sculptors, engravers, and cartoonists of the Coolidges (the President, First Lady, the Colonel, and the Coolidge boys – John and Calvin Jr.) in the posts that follow. ![]()
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