Finis Bates' "Portraits"

[brtmchl]

(09-22-2015 04:49 AM)BettyO Wrote:  I found this regarding the portraits (particularly the one of Mary Surratt.) This is from a description regarding the Donald Dow sale of Lincoln artifacts which was earlier this year.

"The four 40" x 30" oil on canvas portraits in the Dow Collection (framed to an overall size of 37" x 47") were commissioned by Finis Bates. At least three of them, and perhaps all four, were used as part of the original decoration for these traveling John Wilkes Booth carnival exhibits... A photograph of one of the exhibition entrances, taken about 1910, appears on page 144 of The Day Lincoln was Shot by Richard Bak (published 1998 by Taylor Publishing Company, Dallas, Texas). Visible in the photograph are the portraits of Abraham Lincoln, David Herold, and John Surratt. Also visible is a portrait of Mrs. Mary Surratt (painting now lost).

...The portrait of John Wilkes Booth carries a copyright date of February 16, 1898. The artist who painted the portrait is unknown but may have had the last name of "Curtis", according to Don Dow's records...The other three paintings were copyrighted by Finis Bates in 1903 and were probably produced by the same artist who painted the Booth portrait. The images of Abraham Lincoln and David Herold were clearly used to decorate the entrance of the traveling John Wilkes Booth carnival shows. The use to which Bates put the portrait of John Surratt in his Zouave uniform is not known... Three of the paintings were used as illustrations in the Bates book of 1907...."

Here is the website:

http://historical.ha.com/itm/political/-...ion-071515

The portrait of Booth looks more like an older John St. Helen.