United Nations Portraits
Twenty years after making portraits of the delegates of the League of Nations, Violet Oakley was commissioned to visually document the inaugural sessions of the newly formed United Nations. In 1944, the Washington Conversations on International Peace and Security organization, known as the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prompted speculation about an American location for the United Nations. The following year, the Philadelphia Record initiated a campaign to become the host city with the front-page article “Philadelphia—Home of the United Nations” that echoed Violet Oakley’s statements about William Penn’s pioneering role in international relations in The Holy Experiment: A Message to the World from Pennsylvania (1922) and Law Triumphant: A Portfolio in Two Parts Containing the Opening of the Book of the Law and the Miracle of Geneva (1933).1 “Philadelphia, more than any other city in the world, embodies those spiritual values which would inspire and strengthen the United Nations,” with the “ideals of its founder, William Penn, a pioneer in liberalism and tolerance.”2 The fact that the United Nations was organized in the year of the tercentenary of William Penn’s birth seemed prophetic to Oakley, who began working on a commemorative volume titled The Holy Experiment: Our Heritage from William Penn, 1644–1944. When New York won the competition, she was called upon to represent Philadelphia at the inaugural sessions at Hunter College in 1946.
Robert McLean, owner and editor of the Evening Bulletin, the Philadelphia newspaper with the largest national evening circulation, hired Oakley to act as correspondent to the United Nations. For five weeks in May and June 1946 she drew portraits of the delegates, sketched the sessions and recorded her observations. The Bulletin published her drawings and commentary in “Journal of an Artist at the United Nations” on June 24 and “Some of the U.N. Leaders Helping to Shape New World as Seen by Artist Violet Oakley” on June 28.3 Described as “snowy-haired, patrician in her bearing, peppery when defending her ideals such as world peace,” Oakley had lobbied a member of the Security Council who posed for her to move the United Nations to Philadelphia.4 “Since they still may change their minds as to the permanent seat of the organized world, I offered the City of Brotherly Love,” Oakley reported. “I assured him that Philadelphia would have the right spirit, would understand the greatness of their work and rejoice to have it develop and grow upon the soil of Penn’s holy experiment.”5 As a tribute to the peace-making Quakers, she recommended renaming the international organization the “United Nations: A Society of Friends.”6
As an artist at the United Nations, Oakley worked under different conditions than she had at the League of Nations, where she kept a private studio. Nevertheless, she was able to produce twenty finished chalk portraits and many drawings of the delegates in session, including the Norwegian politician Trygve Halvdan Lie, first Secretary General of the United Nations, Alexandre Parodi, the French Resistance leader and diplomat, and Andrei Gromyko, representative of the USSR at the Security Council. She inscribed her portrait of Bernard Baruch of the Atomic Energy Commission with quotations from his speech about controlling nuclear proliferation: “The bomb does not wait on debate” and “the only protection is the abolition of war.” McLean donated a collection of Oakley's United Nations drawings to Woodmere Art Museum.
1 Elton Atwater, “Philadelphia's Quest to Become the Permanent Headquarters of the United Nations,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 100 (2).
2 Charlene Mires, Capital of the World: The Race to Host the United Nations (New York: New York University Press, 2013): 21.
3 "Journal of an Artist at the United Nations,” Evening Bulletin, June 24, 1946; “Some of the U.N. Leaders Helping to Shape New World as Seen by Artist Violet Oakley,” Evening Bulletin, June 28, 1946.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
Works in Woodmere’s Collection
![Dr. Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens, representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations [Security Council]](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d9e2ec9540814484178bc_voe-art-6240-art-image-oakley-2018-1-866-crop.avif)
![Portrait study of Dr. Herbert Vere Evatt, head of the Australian delegation to the United Nations [General Assembly]](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d9e3098f88056a257a083_voe-art-6248-art-image-oakley-2018-1-860-crop.avif)
![Portrait study of Dr. Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens, representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations [Security Council]](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d9e30f6eb16721a65a964_voe-art-6249-art-image-oakley-2018-1-554-crop.avif)
![Portrait study of Dr. Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens, representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations [Security Council]](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d9e31b9fcf87d08197487_voe-art-6254-wide-image-oakley-2018-1-875-crop.avif)
![Portrait study of Dr. Herbert Vere Evatt, head of the Australian delegation to the United Nations [General Assembly]](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d9e31cbbc685d4bfa7f34_voe-art-6257-art-image-oakley-2018-1-878-crop.avif)
![Portrait study of Andrei A. Gromyko, delegate from the U.S.S.R. to the United Nations, protesting [to the UN Security Council]](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d9e318dd5115fe5443dfd_voe-art-6259-wide-image-oakley-2018-1-880-crop.avif)
![Portrait study of Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., delegate from the United States to the United Nations, [attending a Security Council meeting]](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d9e32b9c2cfe9132e7625_voe-art-6262-art-image-oakley-2018-1-883-crop.avif)
![Portrait study seen from the back of Dr. Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens, representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations [Security Council]](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d9e32147d66df1eed47f3_voe-art-6264-art-image-oakley-2018-1-867-crop.avif)
Works in Other Collections
Philip J. Noel-Baker, delegate from the United Kingdom to the United Nations and the Economic and Social Council, 1946 (Private Collection)
Herschel Vespasian Johnson (1894–1966), United States Deputy Representative to the United Nations, 1946 (Private Collection)
Historical Images
The first session of the United Nations General Assembly opened on January 10, 1946 at Central Hall in London (UN Photo by Marcel Bolomey, https://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/detail.jsp?id=166/166000&key=0&query=166000&lang=&sf=)
Atomic Energy Commission of the United Nations, June 14, 1946, United Nations (Hunter College), New York. Seated around Council table, from left to right, are: Manuel S. Vallarta (Mexico), Dr. Eelco N. Van Kleffens (Netherlands), Dr. Oscar Lange (Poland), Andrei A. Gromyko (USSR.), Sir Alexander Cadogan (United Kingdom), Trygve Lie (United Nations Secretary-General), Bernard M. Baruch (United States Representative and Temporary Chairman of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission), Arkady Sobolev United Nations Assistant Secretary-General in charge of Security Council Affairs), Dr. Herbert V. Evatt (Australia), Captain Alvaro Alberto Da Motta Silva (Brazil), Gen. A.G.L. McNaughton (Canada), Dr. Quo Tai-chi (China), Colonel Mohamed Bey Khalifa (Egypt), and Alexandre Parodi (France) (UN Photo, https://www.unmultimedia.org/s/photo/detail/118/0118337.html)
Prime Minister Clement Attlee, of the United Kingdom, addresses the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly at Central Hall on Parliament Square in London, January 10, 1946 (UN Photo, https://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/detail.jsp?id=710/71048&key=0&query=71048&lang=&sf=)
Dr. Charles Malik, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Chairman of the Lebanese Delegation to the current session of the United Nations General Assembly, delivering a speech from the rostrum of the Assembly Hall, United Nations, New York, November 1, 1954 (UN Photo by Albert Fox, https://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/detail.jspid=137/137017&key=0&query=137017&lang=&sf=)
The first Secretary-General of the United Nations, Trygve Lie of Norway, speaking at his installation ceremony at Central Hall in London on 2 February 1946 (UN Photo/Marcel Bolomey, https://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/detail.jsp?id=399/399622&key=73&query=1946&sf=)
Sir A. Ramaswami Mudaliar, Supply Member of the Governor General's Executive Council and Chairman of the Indian Delegation, in conversation at [Fifth] Plenary Session, April 30, 1945, in San Francisco (UN Photo/Rosenberg, https://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/detail.jsp?id=150/150806&key=0&query=150806&lang=&sf=)
Bernard M. Baruch, United States Representative and Temporary Chairman of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, turns over the gavel to Dr. Herbert V. Evatt (right), Australian Representative, upon his designation as first Chairman of the Commission. United Nations Secretary-General Trygve Lie looks on, June 14, 1946, United Nations (Hunter College), New York (UN Photo, https://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/detail.jsp?id=118/118342&key=0&query=%20118342&lang=&sf=)
Eleanor Roosevelt, Chairman of the Human Rights Commission, confers with the Haitian Delegation, including Joseph Charles, Haitian Ambassador to the United States and chairman of his country's delegation to the second part of the first session of the United Nations General Assembly, October 24, 1946, United Nations (Flushing Meadows), New York (UN Photo, https://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/detail.jsp?id=293/293306&key=0&query=293306&lang=&sf=)
Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (USSR) addresses the first session of the United Nations General Assembly, January 10, 1946, Central Hall in London (UN Photo, https://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/detail.jsp?id=332/332319&key=29&query=1946&sf=)
Dr. Jan Masaryk of Czechoslovakia (left) with Secretary-General of the United Nations, Trygve Lie, October 1, 1946, United Nations (Lake Success), New York (UN Photo, https://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/detail.jsp?id=293/293260&key=40&query=category:%22General%20Assembly%22&so=0&sf=date)
Eleanor Roosevelt speaks with Sir Alexander Cadogan, United Kingdom, between September 23 and December 19, 1946, United Nations (Flushing Meadows), New York (UN Photo, https://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/detail.jsp?id=293/293299&key=18&query=1946&sf=)
"Paintings, Penn and Peace," Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine, December 4, 1949The notation on the right, in Edith Emerson's handwriting, reads, “Awfully bad picture of V.O.”
Related Works in Woodmere’s Collection
Portrait study of Robert McLean, date unknown, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)
Portrait study of Robert McLean, date unknown, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)
More from
Portraits
![Beatrice Harrison, "The Lady of the Nightingales" [Woman with Cello], date unknown, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d4dd7ae7c6fcb2a2eac7e_oakley_2018.1.1571-1920x1920-optmized.avif)
