JOHN FRANKLIN WHITMAN. Pair of WWII Red Cross maquettes. Gouache on board. Each approximately 584x482 mm; 23x19 inches. Both signed "Whitman" in lower image. One bearing War Department stamp. Some craquelure and flaking, adhesive residue and notations in margins. 1943-44.
with-Three photographs of Whitman working on a painting of a soldier. One inscribed on verso, "The Artist As an Old Man! Franklin / December, 1944." Another with a lengthy note refuting the fact that his soldier is an idealized, youthful version of himself. Also dated December, 1944. With a photostatic copy of a signed document from the South Carolina House of Representatives congratulating Sargeant Norman H. Gaillard of Williamstown for being depicted by Whitman in the American Red Cross War Fund Poster series. Stating that Gaillard appears, "young, gay, and idealistic, but the lines of his face are hard and lean. He has the stamina that can take it or dish it out."
