(1836-1937), 1928

Hubert Vos (Dutch, 1855-1935)

Oil on canvas (49 1/4 x 36 1/2 in.)

Signed and dated lower right: Hubert Vos 1928

The Union Club of Cleveland

“The lights were turned out in the main dining room of the Union Club last night, but the problem wasn't disposed of”, began a Cleveland Plain Dealer article of January 5th, 1929. “Candles remain burning at intervals down the length of the long table. A couple of bank presidents, a world famous surgeon, several corporation lawyers got up. They puffed and out went the candles. There was a sound of a light being snapped, a sudden glow, and there in the northwest corner of the room was the portrait of Ambrose Swasey, one of Cleveland’s foremost citizens.” Mr. Swayze was president of the Union Club in 1910

“A clapping of hands, a shade louder perhaps than one often hears in the Union Club, indicated that those who attended the dinner were pleased with the portrait of the slightly flustered old gentleman who sat at the table as inconspicuously as he possibly could, staring down into his plate as his fellow townsmen said nice things about him.”

Such was the evening that Hubert Vos’ marvelous portrait of Ambrose Swasey, a Clevelander who earned worldwide recognition from manufacturing some of the world's largest and finest astronomical instruments, was unveiled at the Union Club, where he had been his longtime director and had served two terms as president. The history of this painting benefits from the fact that journalism at the time of the portraits unveiling was in one of its highly floored phases: reporters were eager to record every nuance of atmosphere in the room where the painting was first presented, as well as the world words of appreciation expressed by the honoree, the many distinguished guests, and the portraitist himself who had come in from New York for the occasion.

After he was introduced, 82 year old Swasey remarked, “My dear friends who have come here tonight”, his voice a little tired and very low and pleasant to hear, “I want you to know I appreciate this wall of my heart. The first I heard of this portrait was when [member] Charlie Adams called me up and said: ‘will you sit for a portrait for the club?’ And I said: Charlie, I hope I won't be too mean to refuse it.” He glanced over at his portrait. He said he had enjoyed sitting for the work period he hoped it wasn't pleasant enough that critics would blame him, not the artist. He hoped that they would just conclude: ‘It's’ just the nature of the animal.’”

Hubert Vos, a native Dutchman born in Maastricht, was 72 years old at the time he was approached by John Penton of the Union Club to to paint Ambrose Swasey. Despite his age, Vos was still in full command of the skills that earned him wide acclaim and many honors. Educated at the Belgian Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, he spent a year painting in Rome, and then went to Paris where he trained in the atelier of Fernand Cormon, a former student of the Belgian Royal Academy. Vos developed a very smooth technique, painting very thinly without flashy brushwork but with rich, saturated colors and extremely precise draftsmanship. These qualities combined to create a highly  3-dimensional effects that were much prized in France where his talents our first honored by his acceptance into the salon of 1886; In England where Vos became a prominent member of the Royal Society of British artists; In Asia where he painted hundreds of portraits of royalty in China, Java, Malaysia and Japan, and became the first western artist to paint the Dowager Empress Tsu Hsi of China; And in the United states come where requests for portrait commissions came so fast and thick from wealthy businessmen and socialites that boss was required to maintain studios in New York, Bar Harbor, and Newport to keep up with the demand period from the moment he first set foot on American soil, when in 1892 the Dutch government appointed him Art Commissioner for Holland to the World's Fair in Chicago, Vos was charmed by this country and eventually became a naturalized citizen.

In his portrait of Swasey, Vos was able to create a powerful sense of presence in part by capturing the marvelous intensity of Swasey’s intelligent gaze. But the portraits sculptural quality is particularly indebted to Vos's magnificent rendering of the scientists hands. Vos activated them and the volume suggested within the picture itself by placing them at an angle to the picture plane, and by showing them embracing objects. One hand gently holds the arm of the chair while the other, with the fingers spread apart, is firmly planted on Swasey’s left kneecap. While this man with his shock of thick white hair is more than eighty years old, he still seems capable in Vos’s portrait. The strong hands served to reinforce the accomplishments of the energetic man who, together with his business partner Worcester Warner, founded the Warner and Swasey company, which was initially a pioneer in the building of Labor saving machinery, particularly sewing machines. The company then moved into production of precision telescopes which made the firm world famous. They built the celebrated thirty-six inch refracting telescope of the Lick Observatory, which was erected in 1886 to 1887. It was at the time the largest in the world and adapted to the triple purpose of visual, photographic and spectroscopic work. The success of the Lick telescope resulted in a Commission from the government to construct a similar mounting for the United States Naval Observatory in Washington. Later they were entrusted with the complete Dome and elevating floor for the Yerkes Observatory, which was for several decades, the largest refracting telescope ever constructed.

To produce Swasey’s portrait, Vos came to Cleveland on several occasions over the course of several months to work from life. He completed the painting in December 1928, approximately two weeks before it was unveiled. At the paintings unveiling, the artist said “I never had greater inspiration in my life than I had in painting the great Mr. Swasey. He is one of the men who will live long after we are dead and forgotten.” One of the Cleveland journalists overheard a similar sentiment offered by a Union Club member as he was leaving the building. “Well”, he said to his former dinner companion, “no matter what happens, we've got Ambrose Swasey with us till the club shall cease to be.”

Three years after posing for Voss Swayze sat for another formal portrait, this time with Philip de Laszlo who had been commissioned by the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce to paint Swasey’s portrait for their gallery of past presidents. For many years, de Laszlo’s portrait of Swasey and Herrick hung