Beschreibung:

ROOSEVELT, Franklin Delano, President . Five typed letters signed ("Franklin D. Roosevelt") as President, to the painter Douglas Chandor and his wife Ina, Washington, D.C., 27 July 1939 - 4 August 1943. Together 5 pages, 4to, on White House stationery, with one addition, two original envelopes . A series of letters from the President to the celebrated artist concerning portraits of his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt; his letter of July 1941 refers to the "delightful 'first state' of the colored engraving." Following his mother's death in September 1941, he thanks Chandor on 7 February 1942 for the "color plate reproduction of the splendid portrait which you painted of my mother in 1940...the original of this portrait...hangs in the Library at Hyde Park where it has been much admired." On 3 December 1942 Roosevelt writes: "...I shall, of course, be happy to lend my Mother's portrait to the Sara Delano Roosevelt Interfaith House for the dedication services." To Chandor's wife, 27 July 1939, the President expresses his thanks "for that very nice letter and for the clipping from the English magazine." The final letter to Ina expresses concern for Douglas Chandor's health [4 August 1943]: "I am awfully sorry to hear about Douglas...Tell him not to do any work." Chandor, a British artist, executed his first portrait of President Roosevelt in 1935. His well-known oil portrait of the President executed in March 1945 is in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Chandor had planned a triple portrait of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, but the latter refused to pose. (5)