Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose presidency began in the throes of the Great Depression, led the United States out of its devastating financial crisis. During his first few months in office, he established the New Deal—a set of ambitious government programs that supported public works projects, put forth banking and business regulations, and offered other forms of federal relief. After the United States entered World War II in 1941, he decided to seek a third term, pointing out that one should never change horses in midstream. In the diplomatic summits with Britain’s Winston Churchill and the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin, Roosevelt not only prosecuted the war but helped lay the groundwork for the postwar world.

In March 1945, Douglas Chandor spent several days at the White House, where he made sketches for a group portrait of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin to mark their conference the previous month at Yalta, a resort on the Black Sea. The artist wished the painting to be “a conversation about peace,” but it was never realized because Stalin refused to sit for the portrait. Chandor included the composition for the painting on this canvas, along with studies of Roosevelt’s hands.