"A portrait is a picture in which there is just a tiny little something not quite right about the mouth." -- John Singer Sargent

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Ulysses S. Grant




This cast of Kart Gerhardt's 1885 death mask of Ulysses S. Grant  can be seen in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

 "Grant spent his last years near New York City and is interred in the outsized memorial that looms over the banks of the Hudson River. His funeral was the occasion to forget his checkered presidency and celebrate his military career. Reportedly, more than a million people watched the funeral procession. One of the pallbearers was Simon Bolivar Buckner, who had surrendered Fort Donelson to Grant on terms of "unconditional surrender." The memorial was dedicated five years after Grant's death and his body transferred to it. Innately modest, Grant likely would have found his tomb too grand and elaborate." -- National  Portrait Gallery

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