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The Portraits of Authors as How they See Themselves
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In 1943 my father began a series of portraits of American writers "as how they see themselves." Elliot Paul was the first to sit and at least sixteen authors came to the studio throughout the forties to pose. This is the first time these portraits, some of which include the authors' commentaries, have ever been shown. Click here to for the chapter on these portraits in Waiting at the Shore. |
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Dorothy Parker as a modern day Betsy Ross or Madame Defarge Oil on Canvas: 22 x 30" |
"We
all have our crosses to bear, or so I am told, and among the more burdensome
of mine is my face. Had I been consulted, things would have been vastly
different. But I was not, and there I was, and there it was. So when
Luis Quintanilla, deep in his project of painting various writers in
the characters of those whom they secretly - well, perhaps not always
quite that - considered themselves to be, asked me how I saw myself,
I could only tell him the desperate truth: as a pastel old party, sitting
in a corner, knitting. That was how the portrait started out. But then
the artist, a man of infinite compassion, brushed in the cap and the
shawl, and thus, by a few strokes, made something of my face and of
me - a flagless Betsy Ross, say, or a non-arithmetical Madame Defarge.
Either one enchants me, and gives me the incentive of emulation. And
so I am truly grateful to a truly great artist." Dorothy Parker |
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William Shirer as an Astrologer. Oil on Canvas. The size is not available. |
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Richard Wright as a Jigsaw Puzzle, because he saw himself as a jigsaw puzzle. Oil on Canvas: 22 x 30" |
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Freda Kirchway, of "The Nation," as Madama Butterfly. Oil on Canvas. The size is not available. |
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| A detail from the portrait of Freda Kirchway |
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John Steinbeck as a Sea Serpent. He claimed he had once seen a sea serpent. Oil on Canvas: 25 x 30" |
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Studies
for the portrait of John Steinbeck |
Pen
on paper |
| 11 x 14" | 11 x 14" |
13
1/2 x 18 1/2" |
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George Jean Nathan as Hamlet. Oil on Canvas. The size is not available. Located in The National Portrait Gallery |
"I
see myself as a somewhat somber fellow who views the meanness of life
with a rebellious sense of its possible beauty and who subscribes for
happiness and security to the recipe of sticking a rose into the brain
and throwing a pitcher of ice-water over the heart. " George Jean Nathan |
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Lillian Hellman in grays, because she saw herself as gray in spirit. Oil on Canvas. The size is not available. |
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William Rose Benet as a Ballearic Countryman. My father had a hat which was worn by the peasants of the Ballearic Islands. Oil on Canvas: 22 x 30" (See Disgraces) |
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Elliot Paul as a Picador. Oil on Canvas. The size is not available. |
"It’s
not so much the adoration of the crowd and the danger. Think of the
hours. And if one is impaled or slashed, there are always the sulfa
drugs. "I
suppose everyone who is built for a picador wants to wear the cloth
of gold, face the bull on his own level, and be fearless and precise.
And Anglo-Saxons long to be Latins, and vice versa." Elliot Paul |
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| Detail of the portrait of Elliot Paul |
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Carl Van Doren as a Sculptor of Benjamin Franklin. He was a Franklin scholar and had written his biography. Oil on Canvas: 22 x 30" |
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Quentin Reynolds, the journalist, as a Judge. Oil on Canvas: 22 x 33" (See the section titled Disgraces for more information on this portrait.) |
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John Dos Passos as a Sunday Painter. (He was a good amateur painter.) Oil on Canvas. The size is not available. |
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Leonard Lyons as Mercury, the messenger of the gods. He was a widely read gossip collumnist for the New York Post. Oil on Canvas. The size is not available. |
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Vincent Sheean as a Mandarin colonel. Oil on Canvas. The size is not available |
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Studies of Arthur Miller who posed as Abraham Lincoln
Pen
on paper: 11 x 14" |
Pen
on paper : 11 1/2 x 17 1/2" |
Mr. Miller may still be in possession of his portrait.
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Self Portrait of the Artist as John the Baptist Oil on Canvas. The Size is not available. Though, if I remember correctly, it is about twice the size of the other portaits. |
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