President Lyndon Johnson shaking hands with Elizabeth Shoumatoff at the unveiling of her portrait of the late President Franklin Roosevelt at the White House

1967

President Lyndon Johnson shaking hands with Elizabeth Shoumatoff at the unveiling of her portrait of the late President Franklin Roosevelt at the White House, 1967. Francis Miller (American, 1906–1973). Gelatin silver print; paper: 22.9 x 33.7 cm (9 x 13 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of George Stephanopoulos 2015.329 Society portraitist Elizabeth Shoumatoff made over 3,000 portraits but is best known for four paintings she did of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was posing for her at his retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia, in 1945 when he collapsed from a fatal cerebral hemorrhage. In 1967, Shoumatoff offered one of the paintings to the White House, where it was warmly accepted by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, to whom Roosevelt was a mentor, friend, and role model. Elizabeth Shoumatoff painted Lyndon Baines Johnson’s third official presidential portrait; he rejected earlier depictions by Norman Rockwell and Peter Hurd.