National Portrait Gallery | Face to Face blog

For Thanksgiving: A Note on Audubon and a Recipe from Elvis

On this, the day before our national feast, it is only right that we make mention of our national entrée, the turkey.  An awkward and delicious fowl, it was one of the favorite subjects of John James Audubon.  Turkeys were also a cheap and plentiful bird of choice in Kentucky in the early nineteenth century. In Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of the Birds of America, Audubon biographer William Souder records:

Turkeys were so easily gotten, he said, that in the Louisville market they could be purchased for pennies—less than the cost of an ordinary chicken.  A really big, “first rate” turkey of thirty pounds fetched only a quarter.

The turkey also became Audubon’s moniker for awhile.  Souder continues:

When Audubon began to publish his bird drawings, it was the turkey that he had engraved first.  One of his fans among the English gentry so admired his portrait of the great bird that she asked him for a miniature of it—which she then had copied onto a seal as a present for the brash American.  For many years after, anyone receiving a letter from John James Audubon found it sealed with a large blob of red wax bearing the impression of a strutting turkey cock.

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Of course, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green bean casserole are all part of the traditional table setting for tomorrow’s surfeit.  However, in honor of the National Portrait Gallery’s upcoming year of Elvis tributes, beginning with "Echoes of Elvis" (opening January 8, 2010), we would like to offer up the formula for one of Elvis’ most cherished and non-traditional repasts, the Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich.  The following is from Brenda Arlene Butler’s book of Elvis’ favorite recipes, Are You Hungry Tonight?

1 small ripe banana

2 slices white bread

3 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons butter

1) In a small bowl, mash the banana with the back of a spoon.  2) Toast the bread lightly. 3) Spread the peanut butter on one piece of toast and the mashed banana on the other.  4) Fry the sandwich in melted butter until each side is golden brown.  Cut diagonally and serve hot.

Happy Thanksgiving from the staff of the National Portrait Gallery!

“Pilgrim, turkey, and pumpkin” colored, traced, and constructed by NPG writer/researcher Warren Perry, circa November 1968, Harding Academy Kindergarten, Memphis, Tennessee. 

References:
Souder, William.  Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and The Making of THE BIRDS OF AMERICA.  New York: North Point Press, 2004.

Butler, Brenda Arline.  Are You Hungry Tonight?  New York: Bluewood Books (Random House), 1992.  

Images:
Elvis Aron Presley / Ralph Wolfe Cowan,1976-1988/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of R.W. Cowan 

John James Audubon / Unidentified Artist / Oil on canvas, c. 1841 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; transfer from the National Gallery of Art; gift of the Avalon Foundation through the generosity of Ailsa Mellon Bruce, 1951 

Now On View: LL Cool J by Kehinde Wiley

Rap star and actor James Todd Smith changed his name to LL Cool J (short for “Ladies Love Cool James”) at sixteen, when he released his first single, “I Need a Beat.” In the late 1980s, the success of his recordings helped make Def Jam a major label: his broad popular appeal and nine consecutive multiplatinum albums were significant in transforming rap from an underground genre to a mainstream cultural force.

Beginning in 1993, he included gangsta rap in his repertoire. He has also crossed over to acting, both in film (Toys, Halloween H20, Rollerball), and television (In the House, 30 Rock, House); currently, he is a regular in the series NCIS: Los Angeles.

Kehinde Wiley was commissioned to paint LL Cool J for the VH1 Hip Hop Honors program in September 2005. Last year, a selection of Wiley’s works was displayed at the National Portrait Gallery, as part of the exhibition “RECOGNIZE! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture.” For “RECOGNIZE!” Wiley included paintings from his Hip Hop Honors body of work, depicting some of the foot soldiers of the hip hop movement. The artists chose poses from Wiley’s personal art book collection that best suited the performative and personal aspects of their character. Inspired by Ron Chernow’s biography of John D. Rockefeller, LL Cool J wanted this portrait to have a pose similar to John Singer Sargent’s painting of the philanthropist.

 
LL Cool J / Kehinde Wiley, 2005 / Oil on canvas / LL Cool J

Death of President Chester Alan Arthur, November 18, 1886

Chester Alan Arthur, one of the few men to serve his entire presidency without ever being elected to office (John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, and Gerald Ford were the others), died on this day in 1886. Upon the murder of James Garfield in 1881, Arthur became the twenty-first president of the United States.

Interestingly, although Arthur was never a combat soldier, he was given the title of brigadier general during the Civil War because of his work with the New York state militia’s supply corps; he preferred to be addressed as “general” after that.

Although skilled in the chicanery involved in New York politics and political appointments, President Arthur signed into law the Pendleton Act (1883), a massive civil service reform bill that was ushered into place in order to crush the decades-old spoils system. By the time Arthur had completed the term for which Garfield had been elected, he was widely admired.

Mark Twain is known to have made one of his few charitable political comments in reference to Arthur.  In Fifty Years a Journalist, Melville E. Stone records Twain as commenting, “I am but one in 55,000,000; still, in the opinion of this one-fifty-five-millionth of the country’s population, it would be hard to better President Arthur’s administration. But don’t decide until you hear from the rest.” Twain  had not always been so kind to Arthur. When Arthur served as collector of the Port of New York early in his career, Twain had said of him, “We put the vast business of a custom house in the hands of a flathead who does not know a bill of lading from a transit of Venus.”             

Biographer George Frederick Howe wrote of the twenty-first president:

Time brought Arthur an obscurity in strange contrast to his significant part in American history. “Governments, like clocks, go from the motion that men given them,” as William Penn so wisely wrote. Even when a certain momentum may carry them along, direction is given by the guiding minds of such political leaders as Arthur. . . . Had he not become a president he would have remained a minor character on the historical stage, but as president, he played an important role.

Arthur lost his party’s nomination for the election of 1884; it is believed by many historians that his efforts to get elected were not exhaustive. Arthur’s health was poor and he died less than two years after leaving office.  His portrait, by Ole Peter Hansen Bailing, is on view at the National Portrait Gallery, in the exhibition "America's Presidents."

Chester Alan Arthur / Ole Peter Hansen Balling / Oil on canvas, 1881 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mrs. Harry Newton Blue; Frame conserved with funds from the Smithsonian Women's Committee

Note: Special thanks to Doug Litts, senior reference librarian at the Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum Library for his help in researching this article.

Portrait of Marilyn Horne Donated to the National Portrait Gallery

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery announced the acquisition of a painting of renowned opera mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne by John Foote. Celebrated as one of the most remarkable voices of the twentieth century, Horne is donating the portrait to the museum. The portrait was installed in NPG’s “New Arrivals” gallery Thursday.

“I am grateful for the generosity of Ms. Horne—her portrait is a wonderful addition to our collection,” said Brandon Fortune, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of painting and sculpture. “This painting serves as a biography of Ms. Horne and allows us to tell the story of American opera in the twentieth century.”

Foote created the portrait in 1971 to honor Horne’s debut at the Metropolitan Opera the previous year as Adalgisa in Bellini’s Norma, one of her signature bel canto roles. The artist began the work with drawings and photos made while the singer was rehearsing at the Metropolitan Opera; the artist then finished it in his studio in Florence and shipped it to Washington, D.C. When asked how long it took to complete the work, Foote responded, “forever.” The painting was originally displayed in “Portraits of the American Stage, 1771–1971,” an exhibition the Portrait Gallery organized in recognition of the opening of the Kennedy Center in 1971.

Born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, in 1934, Horne became one of the most remarkable vocalists of the twentieth century. An international opera performer, teacher, and mentor, Horne’s five-decade career began at the age of four when she sang at a rally for President Franklin Roosevelt.

She honed her natural talent while studying music at the University of Southern California before beginning her professional career in 1954, when she dubbed the singing voice of Dorothy Dandridge in the film Carmen Jones. Horne’s talent and career, including notable roles in Norma, Semiramide, and Anna Bolena, have distinguished her as one of the greatest American opera performers.

Artist John Foote was born in Boston in 1929 and attended Boston University. He later studied in Florence on the advice of a friend. “The tragic thing was,” Foote commented, “I had to leave my cat of twelve years behind.” Foote greatly values his experience in Italy. “Only in Florence,” he commented, “because they are culturally brainwashed, can you go up to anyone—an old lady, a young girl, anyone—and ask to paint them and they will respond immediately ‘When?’” On November 14, Horne is receiving the National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honors Award. Horne’s portrait will join those of other prominent opera figures in the National Portrait Gallery, including Marian Anderson, Maria Callas, and Leontyne Price.

Images (top to bottom): Marilyn Horne by John Foote / Oil on canvas, 1971 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Marilyn Horne

Marilyn Horne with portrait Artist John Foote

Blog post and all photos by Warren Perry