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John F. Kennedy Original Artwork by Aaron Shikler

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:50,000.00 - 60,000.00 USD
John F. Kennedy Original Artwork by Aaron Shikler

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Auction Date:2019 May 08 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Original study for the official White House portrait of John F. Kennedy by Aaron A. Shikler, accomplished in white chalk and charcoal on gray-green 23.25 x 32 artist's paper, signed and dated in the lower right by the artist, "AAS 70." This exquisite study portrays President Kennedy in a contemplative profile pose, hand on hip and head tipped downward. It was one of five studies done by Shikler after receiving the commission to create the official portrait of JFK in 1970: this is one of two larger examples which he considered likely candidates for the final portrait, and he also drew three smaller in size. The other larger study—one showing Kennedy facing forward, arms crossed and head down—was ultimately chosen as the image to hang in the White House in perpetuity. Handsomely mounted, matted, and framed to an impressive overall size of 31 x 40. In fine condition. Provenance: Lot #152, Documents and Artifacts Relating to the Life and Career of John F. Kennedy, Guernsey’s, March 18–19, 1998; this artwork served as the cover image for the catalog of this important sale.

Jacqueline Kennedy had become an admirer of Aaron Shikler's work after seeing paintings he had done of her nieces and nephews in the Lawford branch of the Kennedy family. She commissioned him to paint portraits of her own children, Caroline and John, Jr., in 1967, and she served as part of the 1970 selection committee that chose Shikler to create JFK's posthumous official White House portrait. According to Shikler, Mrs. Kennedy had one stipulation: 'I don’t want him to look the way everybody else makes him look, with the bags under his eyes and that penetrating gaze. I’m tired of that image.' In crafting the image by which JFK would be remembered, Shikler told the Washington Post in 1971: 'I painted him with his head bowed, not because I think of him as a martyr, but because I wanted to show him as a president who was a thinker. A thinking president is a rare thing.' A somber and reflective portrait of the president, accomplished by one of the premier American portraitists of the 20th century.