Dalton Shourds was just 24 years old and a recent graduate of the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida, when she received a commission for this posthumous portrait of Agriculture Committee Chairman John Flannagan. Her work was already becoming known in her native Missisissippi, and her first show in Washington was held in autumn of 1958. The painting was begun in January and completed in time for an April unveiling in Flannagan’s southwestern Virginia district and a June arrival at the House.
History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “John William Flannagan, Jr.,” https://history.house.gov/Collection/Listing/2002/2002-009-002/ (June 27, 2022)
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