An obscure book sheds light on a major presidential portrait of Theodore Roosevelt
A. Richard Boera tells the story of Fulop Laszlo’s portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt which was painted at the White House in March 1908. Most of Boera’s text comes from a biography of Laszlo published in 1939, and it includes long passages from Laszlo describing his interactions with Roosevelt, sketching a portrait of Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, and vignettes of life at the White House. Boera’s article in its text and its endnotes also discusses the 1903 John Singer Sargent portrait of Roosevelt.
Four color portraits painted by Laszlo, including those of the president and the first lady, appear in the text.