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Oscar Underwood’s portrait for Ways and Means shows the Chairman three-quarter length, standing behind the rostrum of the committee’s hearing room. Artist Michel Jacobs—who stated in his autobiography that Underwood had “the simple charm of a lovable boy”—received the commission in 1915 and completed the work later that year. Also a teacher and writer, Jacobs wrote The Art of Colour (1923) in which he describes his idiosyncratic theories on color harmonies, which were perhaps being expressed through the warm reds and browns that dominate the portrait.
History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “Oscar Wilder Underwood,” https://history.house.gov/Collection/Listing/2002/2002-021-013/ (August 08, 2022)
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