Description

This portrait of longtime Department of Architecture head Francis Ward Chandler was drawn by Beckwith in the last months of the artist's life. According to an annotation on page 67 in Beckwith's "Record of Pictures", a journal in which he listed all of his drawings and paintings, this "life size charcoal head" was "sold to Boston Tech for 100." In his diary entry for February 20, 1917, Beckwith wrote: "Prof Chandler came and posed for me this morning. Began a charcoal head.” (See James Carroll Beckwith papers, 1871-circa 1991, bulk 1875-1917. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.)

The portrait was given to MIT by American painter John Singer Sargent. Beckwith and Sargent had known each other since their student years, having both been selected by French painter Carolus-Duran (Charles Auguste Émile Durand) in 1877 to assist with the execution of a mural for the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris.

Type

inscription

Location

front, upper edge

Method

charcoal

Text

Francis Ward Chandler - Professor Emeritus Architecture // Mass Institute of Technology

Type

signature

Location

front, lower middle

Method

charcoal

Text

Caroll Backwith Montecito Feb 20 '17