English: Rutherford B. Hayes

Artist

   Eliphalet Frazer Andrews, 11 Jun 1835 - 19 Mar 1915

Sitter

   Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 4 Oct 1822 - 17 Jan 1893

Date

   1881

Type

   Painting

Medium

   Oil on canvas

Dimensions

   Stretcher: 77.2 × 64.1 × 2.2cm (30 3/8 × 25 1/4 × 7/8")
   Frame: 99.7 x 87.6 x 12.7cm (39 1/4 x 34 1/2 x 5")

Credit Line

   Current Owner: National Gallery of Art
   Website: www.nga.gov
   Current Owner: Corcoran Gallery of Art
   Website: www.corcoran.org

Object number

   L/NPG.1.92

Exhibition Label

   Republican presidential hopeful Rutherford B. Hayes went to bed on election night of 1876 thinking that he had lost the contest. But charges of ballot-tampering led to prolonged investigations of the vote count in several states. Out of this inquiry, itself marked by backstairs chicanery, Hayes finally emerged triumphant by a single electoral vote.
   All of the irregularities surrounding his election led some to view Hayes as "His Fraudulency." But questions about his legitimate right to office did not prevent this former Ohio governor from being an effective chief executive. He was responsible for ending the harsh policies that had been imposed on the South since the Civil War, and he instituted the first significant steps toward curbing rampant corruption in the civil service.
   Hayes's portraitist, Eliphalet Andrews, was the founding director of Washington, D.C.'s Corcoran School of Art.

Data Source

   Catalog of American Portraits

See more items in

   Catalog of American Portraits 

Exhibition

   America's Presidents (Temporary Installation) 

On View

NPG, West Gallery 250