Audio commentary by Taína Caragol, Curator of painting and sculpture and Latino art and history at the National Portrait Gallery  

ENGLISH

ESPAÑOL

Transcription of audio:

ENGLISH: When I see this painting of President Theodore Roosevelt, my eyes focus immediately on that hand and that sphere at the end of the banister. And because art historians have a bank of images in their heads, I think back to the Western art tradition of using the sphere as a representation of power. That is a tradition that goes back to antiquity. In fact, in Rome, during the reign of Caesar Augustus, there were coins that represented him with his foot on a sphere to allude to his imperial power. And by the time that John Singer Sargent paints this painting, the sphere is also a very prominent image in U.S. visual culture and that is represented in magazines of the time, with the image of the bald eagle, with its wings spread over a sphere that encompasses the continental United States and the territories. And so even if I cannot tell for sure whether Sargent wanted to align himself with that tradition, it is still possible to look at the image within its context of production and see in it a metaphor for that process of expansion. I also find it interesting to look at this portrait in relation to the portrait of President William McKinley by Francisco Oller that starts our exhibition. Oller represents McKinley with a map of Puerto Rico in his hand, to make reference to how the United States has just fought in the War of 1898 against Spain, and claimed Puerto Rico as one of its new territories. So if you look at McKinley with the map in his hand, and you look at Roosevelt with the hand on the globe, you have a sort of step-by-step process of how the United States became a world power through the acquisition of territories.

– My name is Taína Caragol and I'm curator of painting, sculpture and Latino art and history at the National Portrait Gallery, and I'm a co-curator of this exhibition.

ESPAÑOL​: Este retrato se trata sobre todo del rostro y la expresión facial de Theodore Roosevelt y de su mano sobre ese globo en el pasamano de la escalera. Cuando veo esta obra, me remonto a la tradición de representar el poder político a través de la esfera. Es una tradición que comienza en la antigüedad. En Roma, habían monedas representando a César Augusto que le mostraban con un pie sobre una esfera para representar su poder imperial. Para el momento en que Sargent pinta este retrato, el globo es muy prevalente también en la cultura visual estadounidense. Lo vemos por ejemplo, en revistas de la época que muestran el águila con sus alas extendidas sobre una esfera que contiene los Estados Unidos continentales y los nuevos territorios adquiridos en 1898. Me parece muy interesante también analizar esta obra con relación al retrato del Presidente William McKinley por Francisco Oller que comienza nuestra exposición. En el de McKinley, Oller representa al presidente con un mapa de Puerto Rico en su mano. Puerto Rico justo acababa de ser ocupado por los Estados Unidos durante la Guerra de 1898. Así que si miramos el retrato de McKinley, con el mapa en la mano, y el retrato de Roosevelt, con la mano en el globo, podemos ver una suerte de proceso, paso por paso, de cómo los Estados Unidos se convierte en una potencia mundial a través de su expansión territorial.

– Mi nombre es Taína Caragol y soy curadora de pintura, escultura y arte e historia Latina-Estadounidense en la National Portrait Gallery. Soy co-curadora de esta exposición.