The Young Artist
George Peter Alexander (usually known as G.P.A.) Healy was definitely born poor in 1813 to Irish immigrants in Boston. A bit late to his calling, he was sixteen when he first picked up a brush, but the talent was obvious. His response was immediate. He decided then and there that he would make his living as an artist.
Fate, luck, and a pleasing personality must never be taken lightly.
While in his teens, Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis, a grand dame of Boston society, commissioned him to paint her Portrait. She liked it well enough to circulate his name among other potential clients. Healy also made an important friendship with Jane Stuart, a young woman his own age. She was the youngest daughter of the renowned portraitist Gilbert Stuart, and a serious artist in her own right.
It is Ms. Stuart who introduced young Healy to Thomas Sully, who had made his own reputation with his portrait of Thomas Jefferson, among other notables. Sully noted Healy’s genius immediately and encouraged and critiqued the young man’s work, and advised him to study in Europe.
In Europe, where he lived on and off for decades, he continued his studies, and his affable manners as well as skill won him many important (and profitable) commissions. George Healy was prolific, in demand from the start, and by the time he was forty, had produced nearly 600 Portraits, and had an A-list of clientele.
Painting and Copying Presidents
For more than fifty years after the United States became its own “nation,” prominent people, including its Presidents, had portraits commissioned as the only means of obtaining a likeness. The accuracy depended on the artist’s skills. Photography did not become its own recognized discipline until the late 1840s, when John Quincy Adams became the first POTUS to be photographed. By then, he was an ex-POTUS and an elderly man.
But portraits were always one-of-one, and when the subject (and sometimes the artist) becomes well known and popular, copies need to be made. Sometimes the original artist made a few copies himself, but many fine artists made comfortable livings by copying the works of others.
George Washington had several portraits painted, notably by Gilbert Stuart, and copied numerous times (including by his daughter Jane). Etchings were made from those paintings. Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had also been painted by Stuart, long after their Presidencies, when they were in their elder years. The prolific Charles Willson Peale and his equally prolific and multi-talented family was also responsible for several portraits and copies of early Presidents.
The Healy-Jackson Portrait
Nevertheless, the very first Presidential portrait that G.P.A. Healy painted from life, was Andrew Jackson, in 1845. The actual commission came from King Louis Philippe of France, who was a long-time admirer of Old Hickory. The King had also become a Healy fan and sent the artist back to the US, all expenses paid.
Jax was ill, seventy-eight, and looked every day of his vigorous and often dangerous life. The sitting was done only a short time before Jackson’s demise, and according to lore, AJ was not an easy subject. He was obviously failing, and posing for a portrait at such a difficult time made him even more irritable than usual.
But it made Healy’s reputation. He was only 32.
Becoming Famous, In Demand and Highly Paid
Encouraged by the high level commission, Healy arranged to paint a pair of portraits: Sitting President and First Lady, James Knox Polk and Sarah Polk. Polk was a strong admirer and supporter of Old Hickory, and welcomed the artist to the White House for a few days. The result was perhaps one of the most iconic FLOTUS portraits: Sarah Polk in an elegant burgundy velvet gown with a gold tasseled cap. (It has been copied several times.) Polk’s portrait was a traditional pose, and Polk grumbled to his diary regarding the time-consuming and tedious “sitting” for a portrait – a common complaint of several Presidents.
While he was spending time in the USA, Healy also managed to paint a likeness of an elderly John Quincy Adams, who grumbled, hoping it would be the last portrait he would sit for. He did not care for it, but his wife said it was an excellent likeness.
The Posthumous POTUS Portraits
G.P.A. Healy (1813-1894) lived a long and prolific life, said to have painted some 50 or more portraits (or copies) per year. He ping-ponged living between Europe and the USA, where he made his home in Chicago, and was a founding member of its prestigious Art Institute. He also found time to write his memoirs.
Having gained a reputation via his portraits of Presidents Jackson, Polk and J. Q. Adams, he was later commissioned (mostly by the Corcoran Gallery) to paint other Presidential portraits. Congress did not pay for “official” POTUS portraits until the early 20th century. Healy used previous portraits, photographs or etchings to depict Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and Chester Alan Arthur.
Perhaps Healy’s most famous Presidential portrait was The Peacemakers, painted in 1869, depicting the meeting between Lincoln, General Grant, General William T. Sherman, and Admiral David Porter, only weeks before the surrender at Appomattox Court House. It was originally purchased by Robert Todd Lincoln.
It became immediately popular – and the Healy image of Lincoln was the inspiration for his single portrait of Abraham Lincoln – and if one looks closely, his later singleton portrait of Ulysses S. Grant.
Eleven Presidents in all. More than any other artist.
Sources:
Healy, G.P.A. – Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter (reprint) – Forgotten Books, 2015
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/photos/the-peacemakers-by-george-peter-alexander-healy
