Washington Crossing the Delaware

It is daunting to consider the work realist painter Stevan Dohanos put into this painting. Reproducing images of over a dozen students (and their teacher) with meticulous detail should have been artistic challenge enough, but duplicating Emanuel Leutze’s famous 1850 painting is mind-boggling.

Much has been criticized about Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware: “The crossing was at night (not daytime)”; “That particular version of the flag came later”; and “Washington was only in his 40s and not the elderly man we see here”; to name a few. While the historical inconsistencies are worth noting, the huge 21-by-12-foot painting of that 1776 Christmas night is still a magnificent accomplishment and a tribute to a critical turning point in American history. The painting today is part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

From 1942 to 1958 Dohanos painted 123 Post covers, which can be viewed in our online gallery or at art.com.

First Farmer of the Land

N.C. Wyeth was described in a 2011 Post article by Edgar Allen Beem as “a larger-than-life figure, a swashbuckler of a man whose dramatic illustrations fired the imaginations of generations of readers.” This portrait of Washington was Wyeth’s last work. Country Gentleman editors noted in 1946, “He was working on it at the time of his tragic death at a grade [train] crossing last fall. It is, therefore, an unfinished work. We preferred to have you see it this way than let some lesser artist finish it.”

Wyeth, who had used George Washington as a subject several times, was a natural choice to illustrate the article about the farming habits of the former president. “Mr. Wyeth did exhaustive research on Washington’s farming operations so that this picture might be accurate in every detail,” editors noted. Those details clearly include the depiction of slave labor, a factor not addressed in the article, which concentrates on the minutiae of crops and agriculture. According to the article, Washington was so thorough in his farming procedures that he was determined to find out how many seeds of various cereals were in a pound in order to calculate how many pounds to sew per acre. He carefully counted 8,925 barley seeds per pound; 71,000 seeds of red clover; and 298,000 of timothy (this was before the days of grain estimates.)

George Washington and W.W.I Soldiers

Five of J.C. Leyendecker’s 322 Post covers were portraits of George Washington. His July 1927 cover (George Washington on Horseback) shows a magnificent Washington on horseback in full command of the Revolutionary forces.

This 1917 cover shows the general astride his horse for a latter-day conflict. The United States was involved in World War I and for the Fourth of July holiday, Leyendecker evoked the spirit of the Revolutionary War hero to guide modern-day soldiers through the latest conflict. It was a stirring patriotic scene at yet another critical time in U.S. history.

First Cabinet Meeting by George Gibbs

One could argue that the Post was around when Washington took the oath of office, if one wanted to stretch the point. At that time it was Ben Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette, which became known as The Saturday Evening Post in 1821. This 1902 cover came at a turbulent time: McKinley had been shot and killed a few months before and Teddy Roosevelt was president. An article about Presidents and how they construct their cabinets was the inspiration for the cover.

Teddy Roosevelt by Edward Penfield

He came to the President’s office under the worst of circumstances: the assassination of his predecessor, William McKinley. It was said by some that he was an “accidental President,” but the Post noted in the March 1905 issue that this time around Teddy was “chosen President…by the largest majority that the history of our country records. In the first case the President stood face to face with a great doubt; to-day he stands face to face with a great belief. In the homely and pithy words of a distinguished man, President Angell, of Ann Arbor, ‘the folks want him’.”

President Taft by– J.C. Leyendecker

Cover artist J.C. Leyendecker painted a fine portrait of President William Howard Taft that appeared on the March 6, 1909 cover. Corpulent and cheerful, the new president held a silk top hat. There have been only twenty-six chief executives, said the Post of this exclusive office, and “the Presidential chair has just been enlarged and specially reinforced for the twenty-seventh, who was seated in it this week.” The Post article described Taft as “the heaviest President, the most traveled President, the best-natured President and the first golf player to occupy the White House. He is a three-hundred-pounder with a built-in smile. When Mr. Roosevelt took him though the White House and showed him how the furnace draws best and how to keep the window in the Red Room from rattling, it was a labor of love, for the two are chums. It was the first time a President had bequeathed a close, personal friend to the country as his successor.”

Eisenhower by Norman Rockwell

“I honestly think he has the most expressive face I’ve ever painted,” Norman Rockwell said of General (not yet president) Dwight Eisenhower. Rockwell put the general through his paces: “Could you act as if you’re whipping out a command?” he would ask. Eisenhower barked, “Forward HARCH!” (I wish I could have been a fly on the wall). “Now laugh,” the artist requested, and Ike did so. And so on through 47 sketches. Rockwell, as we all know, was a stickler for details. The final October 11, 1952 cover was of a friendly, smiling Eisenhower. What Rockwell remembered most was a pleasurable hour and a half discussing painting (Ike also painted) and fishing. You would never know the general was in Denver for a political convention, readying for a grueling presidential campaign.

Richard Nixon by Norman Rockwell

As he did with Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson in 1952, Norman Rockwell painted presidential contenders Nixon and Kennedy for the Post in 1960. Rockwell actually painted Nixon six times and after one of the later sittings he noted that Nixon looked basically the same. “Oh, he’s older, sure. Aren’t we all?” The challenge was that Nixon nose. “It’s hell to paint and to keep it from dominating too much.” But the artist added that when “Nixon smiled, he was just about as warm and friendly as the father of two pretty daughters could be.”

John F. Kennedy by Norman Rockwell

It was a little-known Senator John Kennedy that the Post assigned Rockwell to paint in the summer of 1960. When the artist arrived at the Hyannisport compound, Kennedy, still in pajamas, called out to Rockwell to make himself comfortable. “The pajamas were rumpled, but he was wonderful,” the artist noted. Now here’s an odd request of an artist: Kennedy asked Rockwell to make him look at least his age (43). If you’re too young to remember 1960, it was a very big deal that someone so young was running for President. It was a devastated Rockwell that allowed this painting to run again on the Post in December 1963 in Kennedy’s memory. Although Rockwell had painted Kennedy later, it was said the President admired this portrait of him as a presidential candidate.