Boris Chaliapin

Boris Chaliapin
Mohammed Reza Pahlevi (Shah of Iran)
1941
watercolor and gouache on paper
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Sophie Gimbel (fashion designer)
1947
watercolor and gouache on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Deborah Kerr (movie star)
1947
gouache on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Palmiro Togliatti (Italian Communist)
1947
gouache on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Barbara Ann Scott (figure skater)
1948
gouache on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Augustus John (painter)
1948
gouache on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Marshal Tito (Yugoslavian Communist)
1948
watercolor and gouache on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Olivia de Havilland (movie star)
1948
gouache on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Perle Mesta (Washington hostess)
1949
gouache on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Barbara Bel Geddes (movie star)
1951
gouache on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Gloria Swanson (movie star)
1951
watercolor and gouache on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Frederica, Queen of Greece
1953
tempera on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Rosalind Russell (movie star)
1953
tempera on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Le Corbusier (architect)
1961
tempera on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Charles de Gaulle (French Head of State)
1963
watercolor and graphite on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Guy de Rothschild (banker)
1963
oil on canvas
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

Boris Chaliapin
Hendrik Verwoerd (South African Prime Minister)
1966
tempera on board
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC

from Hercules Oetæus

Alcmena:  Learne Lordings learne to feare and dread th'unweildy fatall force.
                 This little dust is all thats left of Hercles hugy coarse.
                 That boysteous Giaunt is consumde unto these ashes small
                 O Titan what a mighty masse is come to nought at all.
                 Aye me an aged womans lappe all Hercules doth shrowde,
                 Her lap doth serve him for a grave, and yet the champion prowde,
                 With all his lumpe fills not the roome. Aye mee a burthen small
                 I feele of him to whom whole heaven no burthen was at all.
                 O Hercules, deare chylde, O sonne the season whilom was
                 That thou to Tartar pits, and sluggish dens aloofe didst passe
                 For to repasse: from deepe of hell when wilt thou come agayne?

– Seneca (4 BC-AD 65), translated by John Studley (1581)