Each year Quirk organized an exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at Lehigh and worked with 4-5 East Coast galleries to provide paintings for display. The works were for sale and usually a favorite was selected for purchase with funds provided by the exhibition alumni supporter Ralph Wilson and his wife. (You can learn more about Ralph Wilson here.)
In the 11th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting in 1964 was a painting by Roy Lichtenstein. The work "George Washington" was on loan from the Mi Chou Gallery who had acquired some of Roy's work from the Leo Castelli Gallery. Mi Chou generated some notoriety for itself and Roy through an exhibition of Lichtenstein's works interspersed among Hudson River School paintings.
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George Washington, 1962 Roy Lichtenstein Private Collection
The painting is sizable, measuring 51 by 38 inches and presages Lichtenstein's more mature style in two notable ways. First, the content is of a prominent image that of our respected first president who graces our one-dollar bill. But it is not just a copy of the original Gilbert Stuart portrait, instead it is a copy of a woodcut of that portrait found in a Hungarian national newspaper. Already, he was reaching into published graphics for inspiration. Second, it uses some classic Lichtenstein techniques- Ben-Day dots on the face and background along with graphic brush strokes on the right side of the face and collar. This is the infancy of the artist's signature graphic style.
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George Washington, 1962 Roy Lichtenstein Private Collection Close up of eye forehead and hair
There is an interesting blog post, which hypothesizes that this painting contains elements of a self-portrait. The writer theorizes that Mr. Lichtenstein is fusing the image of the revered leader with himself saying.
The president's face, as so often in portraits of iconic figures, has been fused with the artist's.1 Lichtenstein presents himself as an American icon. "I have always had this interest in purely American subject matter", he once said. And later: "I had a feeling about official painting...I still do. It's their reliance on great subjects for their force that interests me.."2
The blogger then provides the following image.
Is this a strong similarity? That is for the reader to decide. But we have found another Lichtenstein self-portrait that makes his case even stronger. In our research we found a Lichtenstein self-portrait from 1951-52.
Self Portrait 1951-2, Roy Lichtenstein
When we add in a close-up of the face from the 1951-2 self-portrait, the bloggers observation seems to have more substance. But is it a similar face or a similar style?
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George Washington (close-up) Photo of Roy Self Portrait 1951-2 (Close-up)
It is worth noting that Lichtenstein had earlier mined the George Washington idea with a painting of him crossing the Delaware. We leave that digression out as already we have wandered a bit far from Lehigh and Francis Quirk's exhibition.
Somehow, Lichtenstein's painting went unpurchased, nor did the school select it for addition to the Lehigh University Art Gallery collection. It was listed for sale as painting number 8 at the respectable sum of $500, which was towards the low end of the range of prices.
Translating the 1964 $500 price into 2023 dollars factoring in inflation that price would be equivalent to $5000 today. But the market value for a Lichtenstein such as this would be in the range of $30-$40 million today.
Kiss III 1962, Roy Lichtenstein
For comparison, in 2019, Kiss III sold for $31.1 million at Christies in New York. Alas, Francis Quirk and Mr. Wilson missed the Pop Art boat. Later the Lehigh University Art Galleries would acquire a Lichtenstein print and display it prominently on a catalog cover for a print exhibition.
Finally, Lichtenstein executed another self-portrait in 1976. We show it below.
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