HISTORIC AMERICAN POP
The Collection
Explore Laura Roosevelt’s Historic American Pop paintings and the stories behind them.
Select a painting to view it larger.
Homage
“For one thing we know beyond all doubt: Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, ‘It can’t be done.’”
Blue Eyes
“None of us wants to burrow under the ground and live in total darkness like a comfortable mole.”
Courage
“We do not have to become heroes overnight.”
Devine Inspiration
“In the final analysis, a democratic government represents the sum total of the courage and the integrity of its individuals.”
A Soul Divided
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.”
Declaration
“People who have glimpsed freedom will never be content until they have secured it for themselves.”
Seers
“Peace can endure only so long as humanity really insists upon it.”
Happy Days
“It is the self-reliant pioneer in every enterprise who beats the path along which American civilization has marched. Such individual effort is the glory of America.”
Indomitable
“It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”
Through A Glass Darkly
“All we have known of the glories of democracy …”
Devoirs
“There is so much to do, so many engrossing challenges, so many heartbreaking and pressing needs, so much in every day that is profoundly interesting.”
Keel-laying
“America has always been a land of action, a land of adventurous pioneering, a land of growing and building.”
Our Boys
“The motto of war is: Let the strong survive; Let the weak die. The motto for peace is: Let the strong help the weak to survive.”
Faces of Nam
“We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.”
Sowing Hope
“We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religions, bound together by a single unity, the unity of freedom and equality.”
Minting Of Democracy
“Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”
A Wish
“…to end the year a little wiser, a little kinder, and therefore a little happier.”
Prohibition
“I think this would be a good time for a beer.”
Happiness Is
“I would not be happy unless I had some regular work to do every day and I imagine that I will always feel that way no matter how old I am.”
Grandmére
“I have never felt that anything really mattered but the satisfaction of knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could.”
The Sinking Of The USS Arizona
“There is no such thing as impregnable defense against powerful aggressors who sneak up in the dark and strike without warning.”
A Bull Moose Party
“Government is competent when all who compose it work as trustees for the whole people.”
I Salute the Empire of Texas
“It is not mere acres that count in this world, it is rather the character of the people who dwell upon them.”
Chapel in the Woods
“Save us from ourselves and show us a vision of a world made new.”
He Looked Fear in the Face
“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
Virgil Quick Come See
“But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up, or else we all go down, as one people.”
4th Term
“Whatever happens in an election has to be all right, and one can only trust that the collective wisdom of the people is in the best interests of the country.”
Day In Infamy
“We are not a warlike people. … We are not interested in aggression. … We do not covet one square inch of the territory of any other Nation.”
Atlantic Treaty
“Yes, the decisions of our democracy may be slowly arrived at. … It is binding on us all. And the world is no longer left in doubt.”
Uncommon Warriors
“It is essential that we cast out fear and face the unknown, as our ancestors faced the unknown, with imagination and integrity, with courage and a high heart.”
Unity
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?”
Hats Off
“The American people have a good habit … the habit of going right ahead and accomplishing the impossible.”
The Big Three
“We can gain no lasting peace if we approach it with suspicion and mistrust or with fear.”
Lilac of Belgium
“Some could feel they were endowed by God, some by nature and some by Buddha. The interpretation was for all to name for themselves.”
100th Anniversary
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Winds of Change
“I’m sure whatever is asked of us, we can accomplish it. We are the free and unconquerable people of the United States of America.”
Freedom of Speech
“The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.”
Painting Records
These records bring together Laura Roosevelt’s accounts of the people, events, and personal connections behind the paintings. They offer valuable context for understanding each work and its place within Historic American Pop.
Select a painting below to read its story and catalog details.
Homage
Catalog reference: LRHAP-001
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 32 × 42 inches
The story behind the painting
FDR stands at the rail of the USS Indianapolis, his hand gripping it for support. Laura sees both the effort of standing and the resolve of a commander honoring his men. It is the only photograph she recalls seeing of him standing without another person’s assistance. That combination of vulnerability and determination gave the painting its title.
Blue Eyes
Catalog reference: LRHAP-002
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 39 × 39 inches
The story behind the painting
Laura describes this as the most beautiful photograph she has seen of her great grandmother: Eleanor appears simply radiant.
Eleanor’s radiance drew Laura to this photograph. She removed Frank Sinatra from the composition but kept a reference to him in the title, recalling his nickname, Ol’ Blue Eyes. The shade of blue matches the color of both Eleanor’s and Laura’s eyes, giving the portrait a personal connection across generations.
Courage
Catalog reference: LRHAP-003
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 38 × 38 inches
The story behind the painting
A photograph of John F. Kennedy visiting Eleanor at Val Kill meets a background inspired by Jasper Johns, built from crossing marks made by hand. Laura connects the portfolio beneath Kennedy’s arm with a family account of Eleanor asking him to study FDR’s speeches before she would endorse him. The meeting brings political ambition face to face with Eleanor’s expectations of leadership.
Laura was particularly drawn to Kennedy’s and Eleanor’s hands. She chose a crosshatched palette and made both the underlying painting and the palette with her hands, without tools.
Devine Inspiration
Catalog reference: LRHAP-004
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 35 × 48 inches
The story behind the painting
Questions about the young republic shaped this painting: Washington’s departure from office, the presidency of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson’s place in the succession, and the separation of church and state. Laura chose a background whose color recalled the blood shed in the struggle to establish the nation.
A Soul Divided
Catalog reference: LRHAP-005
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 51 × 29 inches
The story behind the painting
A background that recalled the Capitol rotunda brought Laura’s composition into focus. Lincoln’s image appears behind Lyndon Johnson, placing one presidency in the shadow of another. Developed around the 2016 Aspen symposium, the work joins Laura’s exploration of civil rights and the responsibilities inherited by national leaders.
Declaration
Catalog reference: LRHAP-006
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2023 · 40 × 38 inches
The story behind the painting
Laura conceived Declaration after hearing historian and Eleanor Roosevelt scholar Allida Black speak around the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Black founded the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project at George Washington University, where she taught history and international affairs.
Laura chose a palette she calls City on a Hill, inspired by the promise that all people are created equal and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The painting brings that promise from the Declaration of Independence into conversation with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Declaration is one of five paintings Laura was commissioned to create for Freedom House’s 85th-anniversary celebration. This original piece was inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Her great-grandmother, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Wendell Willkie helped establish Freedom House, an organization dedicated to protecting freedom and democracy around the world.
Seers
Catalog reference: LRHAP-007
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 34 × 41 inches
The story behind the painting
Martin Luther King Jr. and Lyndon Johnson occupy separate circles, but the surrounding movement draws them together. Laura moved the figures closer, opened the window behind King, and introduced light behind Johnson. She imagined the president absorbing King’s words. A shell at the center recalls Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, while the title looks toward a future neither man could fully see.
While discussing the work with high school students during an exhibition at the Jesuit Museum, Laura recalls one boy seeing the photograph within an infinity sign and describing it as the future of equality.
Happy Days
Catalog reference: LRHAP-008
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2018 · 44 × 42 inches
The story behind the painting
The farmer is not looking at FDR. That averted gaze stopped Laura when she first encountered the photograph. She saw in it the wounds and mistrust of the Great Depression. Roosevelt sits on the back of his car with a decorative silver cane; the farmer holds a wooden staff. Their contrasting possessions spoke to Laura of the distance between them and the struggles Americans faced. She chose a background alive with energy to express the hope people sought in the New Deal.
Indomitable
Catalog reference: LRHAP-009
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2016 · 40 × 40 inches
The story behind the painting
Laura returned to this photograph of Theodore Roosevelt twice. A blue version came first. She later rebuilt the composition in orange and stripped it back. The title captures the resilience and force of spirit she recognized in him.
That spirit comes into sharp focus in the story of October 14, 1912. Roosevelt was shot outside Milwaukee’s Gilpatrick Hotel as he prepared to leave for a campaign speech. Wounded in the chest, he insisted on continuing to the auditorium. Addressing the crowd, he announced that he had been shot, then declared, “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” He delivered his speech before seeking hospital treatment. The episode gives the painting’s title a vivid historical resonance: Indomitable.
Through A Glass Darkly
Catalog reference: LRHAP-010
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2016 · 28 × 60 inches
The story behind the painting
The title comes from 1 Corinthians 13:12. Laura imagines Lyndon Johnson looking toward FDR’s photograph and seeking wisdom. In her interpretation, the moment becomes a quiet conversation across generations, as one president looks to another for guidance.
Devoirs
Catalog reference: LRHAP-011
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2019 · 33 × 44 inches
The story behind the painting
During their honeymoon in New York, Laura’s parents stayed with Eleanor. Her one request was that they join her for breakfast at seven each morning. Returning one evening, they photographed her at work on her correspondence. That family image became Devoirs.
Over the years, people who had written to Eleanor told Laura how deeply touched they were to receive a reply. To them, her letters were a personal acknowledgment that their experiences and concerns mattered.
Laura also recalls a family story that, after Franklin’s death, Eleanor asked for a postal machine rather than Secret Service protection so she could continue answering her mail. Her correspondence continued through the final years of her life. Devoirs honors that enduring commitment to others, expressed one letter at a time.
Laura placed tiny paint chips throughout the painting to represent the many people Eleanor touched through her correspondence. She thinks of them as a thousand points of light, continuing through her great grandmother’s energy.
Keel-laying
Catalog reference: LRHAP-012
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 31 × 40 inches
The story behind the painting
Wearing a top hat, FDR strides toward a keel laying ceremony during his years as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Laura was struck by his physical confidence. The photograph precedes the polio he contracted in 1921.
Seen with knowledge of what followed, that stride carries another weight. For Laura, it invites reflection on how adversity shapes character, and on Roosevelt’s determination to rebuild his strength and return to political life.
Our Boys
Catalog reference: LRHAP-013
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2016 · 31 × 68 inches
The story behind the painting
Laura chose these photographs from a National Archives exhibition on the Vietnam War. The first image holds the youth and vitality of the boys. In the second, boys place other boys in body bags. In the last, a soldier looks upward in despair. An abstract painting about fire supplied the palette. For Laura, its heat evokes Agent Orange and the devastation of war.
Faces of Nam
Catalog reference: LRHAP-014
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 50 × 25 inches
The story behind the painting
The documentary The Vietnam War led Laura to reflect on the young men and women caught in the conflict on all sides. She imagined Faces of Nam as a hologram, its white center turning as faces emerged to tell their stories. The hologram was never realized. The painting holds the beginning of that idea: individual lives coming into view across the divisions of war.
Laura was especially struck by how young the boys in these photographs were when they became warriors.
Sowing Hope
Catalog reference: LRHAP-015
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2016 · 51 × 29 inches
The story behind the painting
The photograph shows President John F. Kennedy addressing a televised news conference in the State Department Auditorium in Washington, D.C., on March 23, 1961. With a map of Laos behind him, he confronts an escalating crisis early in his presidency. He calls for a neutral and independent Laos while warning that the United States and its allies cannot ignore the danger posed by continued aggression.
Laura was drawn to the tension between the hope for peace and the possibility of military intervention. She placed the photograph on an upside down palette, using that reversal to express her sense of a world off balance and a young president facing challenges that could overwhelm him. The composition gives visual form to her reflection on leadership under pressure.
Minting Of Democracy
Catalog reference: LRHAP-016
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2016 · 48 × 28 inches · each panel
The story behind the painting
Laura chose the two dollar bill for the history carried on its two sides: Thomas Jefferson’s portrait on the front and an engraving of John Trumbull’s painting, Declaration of Independence, on the back. The denomination also connects two defining chapters in the nation’s story. First issued by the federal government in 1862 during the Civil War, it originally featured Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson replaced him in 1869, and the Trumbull image was introduced for the nation’s bicentennial in 1976.
Laura was drawn to Hamilton’s place in American history as a Founding Father, a Constitutional Convention delegate, a coauthor of The Federalist Papers, and the first secretary of the Treasury. She found the history of the two-dollar bill compelling: introduced during the Civil War with Hamilton’s portrait, it later featured Jefferson, a principal author of the Declaration of Independence who also enslaved people.
The addition of an engraving of John Trumbull’s painting to the reverse in 1976, the nation’s bicentennial, brought another layer of meaning. The scene depicts the presentation of the draft Declaration of Independence to Congress. For Laura, its pairing with Jefferson’s portrait is poetic and worthy of a painting about the minting of democracy. The work also acknowledges the profound role slavery played in shaping the United States and the contradiction between the promise of liberty and the lives of those denied it.
A Wish
Catalog reference: LRHAP-017
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2018 · 40 × 30 inches
The story behind the painting
Laura’s father and his sister spent summers at Val Kill as children. A photograph she grew up with showed them swimming with “Lowie” Howe and Eleanor’s friends. From that family image, Laura imagined Eleanor leaning against her cottage, one hand resting on her cheek, watching the pool. She pictured her making a wish for everyone she loved.
Prohibition
Catalog reference: LRHAP-018
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2019 · 44 × 36 inches
The story behind the painting
Conversations with The Better Angels Society about the documentary Prohibition brought Laura back to this period in American life. Her painting also recalls a personal side of FDR: his pleasure in mixing drinks, telling stories and gathering friends for conversation.
Eleanor was far less comfortable with alcohol, while Franklin cherished his evening cocktail hour, with the martini a particular favorite. He sometimes added a drop or two of absinthe to his mixtures. Laura recalls the family story of his cocktail ritual continuing even during Prohibition, and of the lively conversation that accompanied it. Created in 2019, the painting brings that glimpse of the man into the larger story of an era defined by America’s uneasy relationship with drink.
Happiness Is
Catalog reference: LRHAP-019
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2018 · 40 × 30 inches
The story behind the painting
Laura grew up with Douglas Chandor’s portrait of her grandmother, Ruth Googins Roosevelt. She never forgot how precisely he painted her grandmother’s hands. An artist herself, Laura understands both the difficulty of painting hands and their power to reveal character.
The photograph in Happiness Is drew Laura’s attention because of its connection to Chandor’s official portrait of her great-grandmother, Eleanor Roosevelt. According to Laura, the photograph helped inform his depiction of Eleanor’s hands. In those hands, she saw the record of a lifetime’s work.
Chandor’s 1949 portrait of Eleanor belongs to the White House Collection and has been exhibited at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. He also made portrait studies of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945 for a proposed painting of the Yalta Conference leaders. These connections bring Laura’s family memories into a wider history of American portraiture.
Grandmére
Catalog reference: LRHAP-020
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2016 · 51 × 38 inches
The story behind the painting
Laura’s father remembered that his grandmother always had something in her hands. The three central photographs preserve that memory. At the top, Eleanor greets Laura’s grandfather while he is home on wartime leave. Laura sees the special bond between him and the woman the family called Grandmère.
The photograph at the lower left shows Eleanor in New Guinea during her Pacific visit. Laura recalls Admiral Halsey’s concern about the danger and the responsibility of protecting the First Lady. Eleanor’s encounters with servicemen brought encouragement, and she carried messages from wounded men to their families.
At the lower right, Eleanor appears with Marian Anderson. When the Daughters of the American Revolution barred Anderson from Constitution Hall in 1939, Eleanor resigned her membership and supported the effort to bring the singer to the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. Laura understands Eleanor’s absence from that concert as a decision to keep the attention on Anderson. These are the images she returns to when she thinks of her great grandmother.
The Sinking Of The USS Arizona
Catalog reference: LRHAP-021
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2016 · 30 × 44 inches
The story behind the painting
The loss of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor enters Laura’s series of wartime paintings. The work confronts a moment of national shock and the lives lost in the attack.
A Bull Moose Party
Catalog reference: LRHAP-022
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 50 × 32 inches
The story behind the painting
In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt broke with the Republican Party and helped form the Progressive Party, popularly known as the Bull Moose Party. Running against incumbent President William Howard Taft and Democrat Woodrow Wilson, Roosevelt finished second, surpassing Taft in both the popular vote and the Electoral College. The division between Roosevelt and Taft split Republican support and helped open the way for Wilson’s victory.
That dramatic election brought questions of political independence, reform and divided loyalties into Laura’s work. Discussions about a third party during a symposium gave the historical subject renewed relevance. A Bull Moose Party connects the personalities and passions of 1912 with enduring questions about how Americans choose their leaders and seek change.
I Salute the Empire of Texas
Catalog reference: LRHAP-023
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2019 · 39 × 39 inches
The story behind the painting
The Roosevelt family’s connections to Texas anchor I Salute the Empire of Texas. Created in connection with From Hyde Park to Fair Park, the painting recalls Franklin D. Roosevelt’s visit to the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Texas Republic.
Fair Park is a 277-acre National Historic Landmark just east of downtown Dallas. For the Centennial, the fairgrounds were transformed into a celebrated showcase of 1930s Art Deco architecture, murals, and monumental sculpture. During the Depression, New Deal programs helped support improvements to the grounds and buildings, including landscaping by the Works Progress Administration.
The setting has particular meaning for Laura, whose studio stands across from the Fair Park entrance promenade. During breaks from her work, she enjoys walking along the Esplanade and its reflecting pool, surrounded by the Art Deco buildings and sculptures representing the six nations associated with Texas. The painting connects that familiar landscape with her family’s history and her own life in Dallas.
Chapel in the Woods
Catalog reference: LRHAP-024
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2019 · 36 × 48 inches
The story behind the painting
Laura’s aunt, Chandler Roosevelt Lindsley, encouraged this painting through her connection with Texas Woman’s University. Eleanor’s remarks at the chapel’s dedication and a prayer remembered by the family gave Laura a subject rooted in both public history and personal memory.
He Looked Fear in the Face
Catalog reference: LRHAP-025
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2019 · 14 × 20 inches
The story behind the painting
Laura returned to Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders while developing her Texas paintings. She revised a composition that had included the Alamo, eventually removing that element. The work records her process of choosing which parts of the historical story would remain in view.
Virgil Quick Come See
Catalog reference: LRHAP-026
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2019 · 39 × 39 inches
The story behind the painting
The dedication and later removal of the Robert E. Lee sculpture in Dallas meet in this composition. Laura reworked the dedication ribbon into the later scene, bringing two moments in the city’s history together. She made the painting while considering the changing place of the monument in public life. According to Laura, the painting was not allowed into the 2019 Hall of State exhibition because its subject was considered controversial in Dallas.
Laura also connects the work with The Band’s song The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down and the removal of monuments across the country. She asks how people can teach and learn from the past while confronting painful events rather than pretending they did not happen.
4th Term
Catalog reference: LRHAP-027
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2016 · 23 × 70 inches
The story behind the painting
The exchange between Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman caught Laura’s attention. Knowing how soon FDR would die, she saw the photograph through the approaching transfer of responsibility. Her great uncle stands at attention behind his father. A public ceremony becomes, for her, a family image at a turning point in history.
Laura chose a palette reminiscent of the American flag, with red undertones beneath a blue and white overlay.
Day In Infamy
Catalog reference: LRHAP-028
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2016 · 42 × 39 inches
The story behind the painting
During a childhood visit to the FDR Library for a family gathering, Laura had the privilege of seeing the draft of Roosevelt’s address to Congress following the attack on Pearl Harbor. One handwritten change made a lasting impression: the words “world history” had been crossed out and replaced with “infamy,” transforming the opening into “a date which will live in infamy.”
That encounter gave Laura a personal connection to a document she had known through history. In Day In Infamy, the speech draft and historical photographs bring together her childhood memory and the events that drew the United States into the Second World War.
Atlantic Treaty
Catalog reference: LRHAP-029
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 32 × 30 inches
The story behind the painting
FDR’s expression caught Laura’s attention in this photograph of him seated beside Winston Churchill. Looking at the exchange between them, she imagined Roosevelt asking, “You want me to do what?” It is her imagined conversation, a moment of humor that brings two towering historical figures into human focus.
Their wartime partnership involved difficult questions of aid, strategy and responsibility. For Laura, the photograph opens a window onto the personalities behind those negotiations, capturing the give and take between two leaders whose decisions would shape the course of the war.
Uncommon Warriors
Catalog reference: LRHAP-030
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2014 · 48 × 36 inches
The story behind the painting
Uncommon Warriors was included in the first exhibition of Historic American Pop at the FDR Library. Laura selected Blue Eyes and Homage for that exhibition, while Paul Sparrow selected the wedding photograph of Franklin and Eleanor that became the basis for this painting.
In the young couple, Laura saw two people who could not yet know the reach of their shared future. She called them Uncommon Warriors: Eleanor for her commitment to human dignity and people denied a voice, and Franklin for his leadership in the struggle for peace and freedom.
Unity
Catalog reference: LRHAP-031
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 46 × 38 inches
The story behind the painting
Laura made Unity after being invited to join the board of The Better Angels Society. The documentary The Address, in which students at the Greenwood School learn the Gettysburg Address, was part of that moment. Her white background recalls the “better angels of our nature” in Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address. The painting brings those two speeches into her response to the photograph.
Laura deliberately turned the Confederate flag upside down in the composition, explaining that she did not want to give credence to what it symbolizes.
Hats Off
Catalog reference: LRHAP-032
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 38 × 51 inches
The story behind the painting
Theodore Roosevelt’s laughter and exuberance animate this work. Laura wanted to hold onto the energy she recognized in the New York photograph, bringing the force of his personality into the painted surface.
The Big Three
Catalog reference: LRHAP-033
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 39 × 43 inches
The story behind the painting
Speaking to an audience in Aspen, Laura introduced her reading of the three leaders’ body language with a qualification: “I’m not the historian here.” What followed was an artist’s response to the photograph. To her eye, FDR appeared the great statesman, Churchill seemed to slump in despair, and Stalin looked ready to pounce.
Those contrasting impressions drew her into the image. In The Big Three, posture and expression become a way to consider the personalities gathered together, inviting viewers to look closely and form their own interpretations.
Lilac of Belgium
Catalog reference: LRHAP-034
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 38 × 38 inches
The story behind the painting
Laura recalls learning during a 1974 visit to Holland that a rose had been named for Eleanor in The Hague. She identifies the photograph in this work as Eleanor walking through the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken in Brussels, Belgium, in 1948. The image brings to mind the European visits on which Eleanor took Laura’s father and aunt in 1950, and the family members who accompanied Eleanor on official trips after Franklin’s death. Those associations give the painting a personal resonance for Laura.
100th Anniversary
Catalog reference: LRHAP-035
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2020 · 30 × 72 inches
The story behind the painting
The 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment inspired Laura to create this painting. She adapted the phrase “Ain’t I a Woman?”, widely associated with Sojourner Truth, and added the numeral 2 as the graffiti-like anchor across a brick wall.
A poster featuring Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, champions of women’s suffrage, appears prominently on the wall. Inscribed in the bricks are the names of other activists, references to amendments and obstacles in the struggle for women’s voting rights, and the dates when individual states ratified the 19th Amendment.
Laura was shocked to learn that Mississippi was the last state to ratify the amendment, in 1984—64 years after it became part of the United States Constitution in 1920. Mississippi’s delay did not postpone the amendment’s legal effect there, but it underscored for her how long resistance endured. The painting commemorates the centennial while reflecting on the continuing struggle to make voting rights accessible to all women.
Winds of Change
Catalog reference: LRHAP-036
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2017 · 50 × 26 inches
The story behind the painting
Laura pairs a photograph she identifies as Eleanor Roosevelt broadcasting on the evening of December 7, 1941, with an image of Eleanor knitting. The pairing brings together a public call for steadiness after the attack on Pearl Harbor and a familiar personal activity.
In her radio address that evening, before Franklin Roosevelt’s address to Congress the next day, Eleanor urged listeners to continue their responsibilities and spoke to women whose loved ones were serving in the armed forces. Laura connects the knitting image with Eleanor’s encouragement of women’s wartime knitting efforts. For her, the two photographs join public resolve with the practical work of everyday life.
Freedom of Speech
Catalog reference: LRHAP-037
Artist: Laura Roosevelt
Creation year and dimensions: 2015 · 48 × 48 inches
The story behind the painting
Laura identifies Freedom of Speech as the first in a series of paintings reflecting the four principles in Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms address. She chose orange, a combination of red and yellow, to express vitality, enthusiasm and creativity without the aggression she associates with red. For Laura, yellow adds warmth and joy, and the resulting orange encourages conversation and two-way communication.
