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Elizabeth Shoumatoff

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Elizabeth Shoumatoff
Born
Elizabeth Avinova

(1888-10-06)October 6, 1888
Kharkov, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire
(now Kharkiv, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine)
DiedNovember 30, 1980(1980-11-30) (aged 92)
Glen Cove, New York, United States[1]
OccupationPortrait Artist
Known forUnfinished portrait of President Roosevelt (FDR)
Notable workPortraits of FDR, President Johnson
Spouse
Leo Shoumatoff
​
(until 1928)​
RelativesAndrey Avinoff (brother), Alex Shoumatoff (grandson)

Elizabeth Shoumatoff, née Avinova, (December 19, 1888 – November 30, 1980) was a portrait painter who was best known for painting the Unfinished portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Other paintings of White House residents include portraits of President Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson.[2] She painted renowned American business leaders such as Richard K. Mellon of the Mellon Bank, Thomas J. Watson, Sr. of IBM, Robert W. Woodruff of Coca-Cola, Harvey Firestone, the Hunts, the Heinzes and the Duponts. She painted multiple generations of prominent families such as Fricks, Whitneys, Phipps and countless others. She also painted international leaders, including William Tubman, president of Liberia, Rabindranath Tagore the Nobel Prize-winning Bengali poet, the grandchildren of Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and Anne Cox Chambers, U.S. Ambassador to Belgium.

Early life

Shoumatoff was born in Kharkiv (in Ukraine)[3] on December 19, 1888, the youngest child of an aristocratic family in what was then Imperial Russia. Her father, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Avinov (1844-1911) was a lieutenant-general in the Imperial Russian Army.

Her eldest sibling Nikolai, a professor of fiscal law, was the Assistant Minister of Interior Affairs in the Russian Provisional Government under Kerensky. He was the only member of the family to remain in Russia after the Russian Revolution and was later executed during the Stalinist purge of 1937. Her next oldest brother Andrey Avinoff was a prominent entomologist and artist who became the Director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, PA. Elizabeth Shoumatoff emigrated to the United States just before October Revolution with her family. Her husband, Leo Shoumatoff, became the business manager of Sikorsky Aircraft Company in its early years. The family lived in Merrick Long Island.

Career

Shoumatoff's extraordinary talent for portraiture resulted in commissions from some of the most illustrious families in America, Great Britain and Europe. She painted over 3,000 portraits over sixty years during her lifetime. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was sitting for her at the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia, when he suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, 1945.[4] While she was painting his portrait, he told her: "I have a terrific headache."[5] The original unfinished portrait still hangs in the Little White House in Warm Springs and a finished copy commissioned for the Oval Office by President Lyndon B. Johnson is part of the White House collection. Johnson, who had famously rejected Peter Hurd's prior portrait of LBJ, approved Shoumatoff's painting as his official presidential portrait.[6]

Death and legacy

A longtime resident of Locust Valley, New York, Shoumatoff died in November 1980 aged 92.[1] Her estate donated some of the sketches related to the Unfinished Portrait to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York. Some of her other works and materials from the latter part of her life are now in the Archives of American Art.[7]

  • Portrait of Lyndon Baines Johnson, oil paint, 1969.
    Portrait of Lyndon Baines Johnson, oil paint, 1969.
  • Official Presidential portrait of Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1968.
    Official Presidential portrait of Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1968.
  • Watercolor portrait of Shoumatoff's brother, Andrey Avinoff, 1975.
    Watercolor portrait of Shoumatoff's brother, Andrey Avinoff, 1975.
  • Portrait of Ethel Roosevelt Derby, oil paint.
    Portrait of Ethel Roosevelt Derby, oil paint.

References

  1. ^ a b Saxon, Wolfgang (December 1, 1980). "Elizabeth Shoumatoff, 92, Dead; Painted Portraits of 2 Presidents". The New York Times. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
  2. ^ Shoumatoff, Elizabeth (1991). FDR's Unfinished Portrait: A Memoir. University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 978-0-8229-3659-6.
  3. ^ "Elizabeth Shoumatoff Papers, 1945-1994 | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum". www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
  4. ^ "Franklin D. Roosevelt Day by Day – April". In Roosevelt History. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum Collections and Programs. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  5. ^ "FDR's Final Days". History Channel Club. Archived from the original on 2013-05-17. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
  6. ^ The portrait LBJ never wanted the world to see, KUT 90.5, July 6, 2023
  7. ^ "Elizabeth Shoumatoff papers, 1945–1991". Archives of American Art. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
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