Sam Bookatz is one of America's great artistic treasures. He has had a long and prolific career painting stunning portraits of presidents and government officials, as well as creating distinctive cubist inspired abstract paintings.

A special highlight of Bookatz's career is painting Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, while a Navy lieutenant assigned to the White House during World War II. These works and others of Cabinet officials were created in the Lincoln Bedroom, which served as Bookatz's studio for nearly two years. "The best light I had was sitting on the edge of Lincoln's bed and painting with my easel propped up in front of me," recalls Bookatz.

Born in 1910 in Philadelphia, Bookatz graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1935. He also studied painting at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, The Academy Grande Chaumiere in Paris and the American Academy in Rome, where he won the highly coveted Prix de Rome. As early as 1945, Bookatz became a regular contributor to the Corcoran's Biennial exhibition and in 1948, at the age of 38, he had a one-person show at the Corcoran. His paintings are in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Phillips Collection, the Smithsonian Institution, the White House, the Library of Congress and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Bookatz, a long-time resident of Washington, DC, was an active participant in the local arts community for many years.

 

Georgetown, Washington DC

Dick Kleinman and Sam Bookatz

April 2006

 

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