FDR’s Favorite Portrait of Eleanor
ALTThis was Franklin Roosevelt’s favorite portrait of his wife.
His son, Elliott, commissioned it shortly after FDR’s election to the presidency. The Roosevelt children presented it to their father as a birthday gift during a celebration at the family’s Hyde Park home on January 30, 1933.
Roosevelt shipped the painting to the White House, where he placed it in a prominent location in his private Study. It remained there until his death in 1945.
“You know, I’ve always liked that portrait,” he once remarked to Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins. “It’s a beautiful portrait, don’t you think so? … You know the hair’s just right, isn’t it? Lovely hair! Eleanor has lovely hair, don’t you think so?”
Eleanor had a very different reaction to the portrait. When she first saw it she burst into tears. She told reporters she wanted to burn it “because it makes me look too pretty.” After FDR’s death, she gave the painting to Elliott.
The portrait closely resembles a 1927 photograph of Eleanor by Edward Steichen. Artist Otto Schmidt likely used that photo as a reference because Mrs. Roosevelt did not pose formally for him (though she did allow the painter to sketch her at St. James Church in Hyde Park and other social functions).
Schmidt was a prominent painter of business and social figures in the Philadelphia area.
Join us throughout 2023 as we present #FDRtheCollector, featuring artifacts personally collected, purchased, or retained by Franklin Roosevelt, all from our Digital Artifact Collection: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/objects/19401
