Herbert Abrams, 82, painter of presidents
HARTFORD -- Herbert E. Abrams, the painter of famous figures whose work included portraits of former presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and Jimmy Carter,
died in a Kent nursing facility Friday after a battle with prostate cancer. The Warren resident was 82. In a career that spanned more that four decades, the artist completed about 400 portraits, including General William Westmoreland, playwright Arthur Miller, and astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.
"His favorite portrait was always `the next one,' " said his daughter, Kathryn Bindert, of Malverne, N.Y. Born in Greenfield, Mass., Mr. Abrams was the ninth of 10 children of German immigrants. The family moved to Hartford after their dairy farm went bankrupt, and his father peddled fruit from a pushcart.
Mr. Abrams studied at the Norwich Art School and became a pilot in World War II. While he was serving as a camouflage technician, he redesigned the Army Air Forces aircraft insignia. Later, he would teach art classes to officers at the US Military Academy at West Point, where he was the subject of the documentary "A Different Light."
After the war, he studied at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students' League, both in New York City. In the 1950s, he considered himself fortunate when he received $35 for selling a portrait from a bench in Greenwich Village.
"I didn't think I would finish school. They were very hard times," he said in a 1995 interview with the Waterbury Republican-American.
Mr. Abrams' portrait of Bush was revealed in a highly publicized ceremony in July of 1995. The portrait depicts Bush, looking fit and smiling faintly, standing in his office with his right elbow resting on a globe to represent his interest in foreign policy.
"I'm inclined to think it's pretty darn good," Bush said at the time.
Mr. Abrams was selected for the painting after George and Barbara Bush were impressed by the Carter portrait, described by a former White House curator as the best of the contemporary portraits in the Capitol collection. The only complaint from Barbara Bush was that for a portrait of the first lady revealed the same day, her dog couldn't sit in her lap.
"Millie, I tried," Mr. Abrams once recalled the first lady saying sadly to the dog at her feet.
Mr. Abrams frequently spent time with his subjects before the portraits were composed. For Carter's portrait, he spent time observing him in Sunday school classes; for the Bush portrait, he met at a country club in Houston.
"You don't have to fake or make something up," he told the New York Times in 1985 about how he painted subjects. "Just look."
He often became friends with his subjects: Carter once gave him a collapsible metal tube he used for carrying fly-fishing rods so Mr. Abrams could transport unfinished portraits on airplanes. During another visit, Carter drew a fish on the tube.
His wife, Lois Abrams, served as his public relations agent, managing his schedule while he painted. The two were married 49 years and brought up two children in Warren.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Abrams leaves a son, William of Warren; a brother, Arthur of Warehouse Point; and five grandchildren. A memorial service is being planned for October in Kent.
