Dwight Eisenhower Self-portrait, ca. 1951
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GUEST:
It's a self-portrait by President Eisenhower, painted in about 1951. My father was the chief of staff to Eisenhower in the White House, and a longtime friend. And Eisenhower gave the picture to my dad, who hung it in his house for 30 years or so, and then I inherited it about 25 years ago.
APPRAISER:
Eisenhower was known to have been a hobbyist painter, primarily.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
He painted for relaxation, and, um, was a fairly accomplished artist. And there are a number of records of pictures of his that have been sold in the past. For the most part, the ones I'm familiar with were landscapes, rather than the portraits. I think portraits have, perhaps, stayed in families more. He's certainly an immediately recognizable image, and I think it's kind of a treasure to have this. There's quite a wide range of prices for work by him. It's really more the personality of the artist than it is the quality of the pictures, which are nice, but not particularly outstanding or that of a professional portraitist. I would say that this picture must be worth in the $15,000 to $20,000 range, just based on what some of his other pictures sell for. There's a range of anywhere from about $6,000 to about $35,000, and I think this probably would fall somewhere in the middle.
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