Painted Ladies of the White House

There were a number of firsts with the painting of Hillary Clinton's portrait. The first African American portrait artist Simmie Knox did a tandem of her and President's Clinton's official oil portraits. She is wearing a pantsuit with her hand touching her best selling book with an example of historic White House China on the table. The painting hangs on the Ground floor in the Hall. Portraits courtesy of the White House Collection.

All over the White House the painted eyes of presidents and first ladies watch the new occupants as they settle into the presidential manor. President Nixon used to speak with the portraits and keep himself in the wilting humidity of a Washington summer closeted in
the Lincoln Sitting Room with the fireplace crackling. Nancy Reagan was very particular about the portraits and where certain first ladies would grace the walls. Her portrait is a stunning red visage that matches perfectly the red carpets on the Ground Floor and Cross Hall - it was not an accident. Part of the tradition in modern times is to select a portrait artist and the result is part of a White House Ceremony unveiling the art. Usually, the second term in office is when the president and first lady start thinking about their formal portraits and start to select or audition painters of the first brush. The styles change over the years, with portraits of the first First Couples being part of living in the early days of the republic. (President Obama & Nancy Reagan on Ground Floor in the hallway pass her portrait on the way into Diplomatic Reception Room as he signs The Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission honoring his memory.)

Teacher for the Deaf & crochet expert Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge 1923 - 1929 as First Lady Teetotaler Lucy Ware Webb Hayes 1877 - 1881 as First Lady Daughter-in-law Angelica Singleton Van Buren acted as hostess/First Lady 1839-1841 as Hannah Van Buren had passed away. Permanently displayed in the Red Room. Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams (1825-1829) is the daughter-in-law of Abigail Adams is the first lady who advocated for females and their rights.

Wearing French empire and showing shapely cleavage, the Dolley Payne Todd Madison portrait (1804) in oil by her friend Gilbert Stuart is so well known it graces alongside presidential portraits. She was the official hostess for Thomas Jefferson when the portrait appeared and later she became first lady With 44 presidents and 46 first ladies in total, (some presidents were widowers and remarried or bachelors or married for the first time while in office), the wall space in the 55,000 square foot Executive Mansion has prime space and lesser space. The current president and first lady select who goes where. One prime piece of real estate is just beneath and around the Grand Staircase just off the foyer or anything on the state floor and mostly, it is the presidents in the corridors with special first ladies or hostesses of presidents inside the colored salons off the Cross Hall.

Tourists see the Vermeil Room on the ground floor where its incandescent light makes Jackie Kennedy's acclaimed portrait seems as if its always hung there in its rightful prominent place. Martha Dandridge Custis Washington has the most prominent space along the same wall and same height of her husbands Gilbert Stuart painting of her husband George in the White House's largest formal space, the East Room.

Elizabeth Kortright Monroe's (tenure 1817 -1825 though her daughter Eliza stepped in most of the time as hostess) oil portrait by John Vanderlyn retains a prominent place near the South Portico just before the entrance to the Green Room. Her ermine shawl is perfect for the French Empire design of the Blue Room she and her husband worked so hard to furnish.

The artists themselves are varied with some interesting stoeirs. Anders Zorn painted the youngest first Lady ever, Frances Folsom Cleveland. Howard Chandler Christy painted Grace Coolige with her collie, Rob Roy, beside her and the South Portico of the White House over her shoulder. Boldly sporting a nineteenth century pompadour, Henry Inman painted Angelica Van Buren who was related to Dolley Madison by marriage. Inmans work populates the vast White House Art Collection with many paintings of The First People. Modern twists occurred with Eleanor Roosevelt (1933 - 1945) the hands never still and Mamie Eisenhower (1953-1961) in her inaugural ball gown. Florence King Harding has a memorable coif immortalized in oils by Philip Alexius deLaslode lombos in 1921.

The chair pose is almost as popular as the ones with the White House as a backdrop.

Completed in 1967, Elizabeth (Bess) Wallace Truman seems to be the modern start for the seated pose. Above, wearing the famed triple strand is Barbara Pierce Bush (1989 - 1993) from 1992 painted in oils by Herbert E. Abrams. Elizabeth (Betty) Bloomer Ford painted by Felix De Cossio. It took awhile post presidency for the portrait of Rosalynn Smith Carter (1977-1981). In 1984, the softly hued oil portrait was completed by George Agusta. Rosalynn Carter has nothing on Martha Washington (1788-1796) whose official portrait came from Eliphalet F. Andrews who used a live model and dress from the nineteenth century when she was definitely a person of the eighteenth. The portrait was finally done a hundred years after the founding of America in 1878.

A new twist with oval portraits and using two Ediths. Edith Carrow Roosevelt (1901 - 1909) used a different frame, the south White House gardens while sitting on a bench. Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (1913 -1821) was the second first lady of the Wilson Administration who approved who and what the president saw during his illness and recovery.

First lady oil paintings are fascinating with the variety of styles and choices for what they want to project for the American People in the centuries to come. These portraits are waves from the past that reflect on style, culture, and the individual - the American way!

These three are My favorites

Helen (Nellie) Herron Taft (1909 - 1913) had the idea of the South Portico First in 1910 painted by Karl Bror Albert Kronstrand

(Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (1961 -1963) Photo courtesy of Robin at Big Red Kitchen) Aaron Shikler completed Jackie's in 1970 and indeed, did the famous oil painting of President Kennedy that has pride of place just outside the State Dining Room. Seventeen years later he created new magic with Nancy Davis Reagan's (1981 - 1989) oil portrait

Which are your favorites?

Note: An official photograph is also issued with the advent of technology. Mrs. Obama in oil ought to be as spectacular as the full official photo.

First Ladies, Gowns & The Smithsonian Exhibit

First Ladies formal wear, part of the presidential inaugural festivities, extend their natural lives mounted behind glass at the National Museum of American History as part of the Smithsonian for visitors too ooh and ah over or recoil in fashion terror. Almost one hundred years ago, before women had the right to vote, the first donation for curating for an exhibition, "Collection of Period Costumes" focused on women, arrived from First Lady Helen Taft's 1909 inaugural debut. Better known as Nellie to intimates, she was a big social drinker - even during Prohibition and staunch guardian angel of her husband's political ambitions. Mrs. Taft rocked the nation by riding next to him in the inaugural parade. Her gift of gown aided the evolution of what is now known as the "First Ladies Collection" of which the gowns displayed are a mainstay, augmented with more relics, from White house china to bumper stickers, from a first lady's time in the White House. (Nellie Taft's White House portrait)
Lisa Kathleen Graddy is the current curator of the Smithsonian's First Ladies Exhibit, now entitled - after a December 2008 reopening in its third iteration - First Ladies at the Smithsonian. There were a flurry of anxious calls to the Smithsonian after the Obama inauguration to ascertain the exact date Michelle's dress would make its debut. Certainly the Smithsonian has written a formal request to the first lady for a particular list of items. At least two of the potential items are still in use by Michelle Obama, the Kelly green Jimmy Choo's and the cardigan she wore under the Isabel Toledo's lemon grass ensemble for the swearing in and walk along the parade route.

The now famous Jason Wu white gown will take a year or more before it is ready. Little/big/Oh My details have to be worked out. For one, the mannequins in the display cases feature custom made forms that are more white for featuring the dress. What do you do with Mrs. Obama's form - even if it is headless?

Meanwhile the Smithsonian is on a quest for something related to the Obama Inaugural. So far, the Queen of Soul has not yet felt a convincing argument to release the bow-tie crystal-encrusted wonder into the annals of hat history at the famed institution.

Aretha Franklin singing My Country Tis of Thee, Photo courtesy AP

The exhibition of First Lady doo dads and duds is arguably one of the most visited. What is fascinating is what happens during conservation of the gowns and other accouterments. Fans fluttered by some first ladies are rather ornate. Jewelry ranging from Jackie Kennedy's pearls to handbags and matching shoes have a place inside the display cases. Photos or letters describing the gowns or what happened to them are checked and verified in minute detail. Even the detail that Rosalynn Carter took austerity measures and wore a gown she unearthed from when her husband was sworn-in as Georgia's governor - twice before - shall not go unremarked.

Rosalynn Carter (1977) Hillary Clinton (1993)

Through the ages, many first lady gowns went to family members who repurposed them for wedding dresses or day wear. Mary Todd Lincoln's vertical striped dress with little purple flowers was updated for day wear by a family member and the lace collar removed compared to photographic evidence. Frances Cleveland's second inaugural dress became the family wedding dress and Martha Washington's silk frock had some fiddling done to the collar section. Practical Eleanor Roosevelt went synthetic with Arnold Constable designing the rayon crepe in a pinkish rose color. There may be something instructional here as Mrs. Obama's section is thought out because Eleanor Roosevelt height needed an adjustment to be made to her form to give it the right statuesque proportions to showcase the ensemble properly. Of course, Mamie Eisenhower wore her signature color - pink - in 1953 (pictured left). I must confess the only dress I remembered was the violet Susan Philip's gown Hillary Clinton wore because I liked it. (Photos courtesy of National Museum of American History)

In Elizabeth Mayo's curation for first lady gowns, the mannequin's featured heads. Because of the beaded lace work on some of the gowns many feature arms, but but not hands in the most recent edition on display. There are 14 gowns on display at any given time due to the need to preserve some of the more fragile ones that are unavailable for featuring permanently. Another interesting factoid is the gown the Smithsonian wants most is the one from the first inaugural. Should the president get re-elected the second gown is usually found at their presidential library for more modern presidents.