7328

Drawing

William Howard Taft 1908

Head and shoulders to the right, the head in three-quarter profile

Graphite on white paper, 23.3 x 18.8 cm (9 ¼ x 7 ½ in.)

Inscribed centre right: Taft / 908 / III. 19 / Washington / White House          

Inscribed lower right: P.A. László   

Inscribed verso: A sketch of Taft completed without his knowledge / in March 1908 when Secretary of State to President / Theodore Roosevelt while PA de L was staying at The / White House to paint the President /  John de

Laszlo [in the hand of John de Laszlo, the artist’s son]

Studio Inventory, p. 166 (382): Study for Portrait of President Taft. White House, Washington, D.C.

Private Collection

In March 1908 de László and his wife Lucy sailed to New York and travelled by train to Washington D.C. to paint portraits of President Theodore Roosevelt [5201] and his wife Edith, née Carow [5203]. Sittings took place at the White House and during one of these Howard Taft, then Secretary of State, brought some urgent papers for the President to read. The moment was recorded by the artist: “Having read the despatch [sic.] the President asked Mr Taft to wait a few minutes, saying that I had some very particular work to do. Mr Taft sat down in a corner and busied himself with his papers. ‘Now is your chance,’ whispered the President, and accordingly I promptly made a sketch of that massive head, catching Mr. Taft's attitude as he read.”^[1] The artist kept this sketch and it was recorded in the inventory of his studio after his death.

William Howard Taft was born 15 September 1857 in Cincinatti, Ohio, the son of judge and former cabinet minister Alphonso Taft (1810-91) and his second wife Louise Torrey. He studied at Yale University and the University of Cincinnati. After qualifying as a lawyer he became a member of the Ohio Bar in 1880. He held various public offices before his appointment as an Ohio superior court judge in 1887. In 1890 he became US solicitor-general under President Benjamin Harrison, but resigned after two years to resume life as a federal circuit judge.

President McKinley appointed Taft to head a commission concerned with the restoration of civil administration in the Philippines and he became the first civil governor 1901-04. Appointed secretary of war by Theodore Roosevelt, Taft became a close friend and advisor to the President. In 1908 he was persuaded to run for the presidency and won, taking office in March 1909. He vigorously enforced antitrust legislation and established the department of Labour. In an acrimonious 1912 election campaign Theodore Roosevelt formed his breakaway Progressive party and ran against Taft's official Republican ticket, splitting the vote and enabling victory for the Democrat, Woodrow Wilson. In 1913, Taft was appointed professor of constitutional law at Yale University. During the First World War, he was appointed the US Supreme Court's chief justice whereupon he embarked on improving the coordination and efficiency of the judicial system.

The sitter died 8 March 1930 at his home in Washington, D.C. and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death;

Sold Christie’s, South Kensington, 12 March 2015

LITERATURE:

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 253-4

KF 2015