"Arrival in Dallas"
Object number2011.034.0057
Date1968 - 1985
ClassificationsArt
Artist
Bernadine Stetzel
ObjectArtwork
Credit LineBernadine Stetzel Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Collections
DescriptionOil painting on canvas created by artist Bernadine Stetzel of President and Mrs. Kennedy descending from Air Force One at Love Field in Dallas.
Artist Stetzel described this piece as follows: "President and Mrs. Kennedy arrive at Love Field, November 22, 1963."
An enthusiastic supporter of John F. Kennedy, Stetzel was devastated by the assassination. Shortly after visiting the president’s gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery in 1968, she began work on a series of paintings that depicted the life of the late president. Between 1968 and 1985, with a long break in the middle, Bernadine Stetzel created 71 works that followed John F. Kennedy from his christening ceremony to the eternal flame at his gravesite.
Curatorial CommentaryExhibit label: President and Mrs. Kennedy arrived at Dallas Love Field on November 22, 1963. Powerful imagery from that fateful weekend was repeatedly printed and broadcast in the aftermath of the assassination, and perhaps as a result, Stetzel devoted five paintings in her Kennedy series to events in Dallas.
This painting is based upon a color photograph by White House photographer Cecil Stoughton of the Kennedys disembarking Air Force One on November 22, 1963. – Stephen Fagin, Associate Curator
