It’s President’s Day here in the U.S., and though it’s nice to contemplate the changes that will hopefully come from the presence of a new and very different president, the holiday is dedicated to past presidents, most specifically the first U.S. president, George Washington, whose birthday the holiday marks and was originally named for.

Our picture of Washington, like most figures from his time, is based on artists’ portraits; in the case of Washington, most notably the famous portraits by Gilbert Stuart.

The wives of presidents were also the subject of official portraits, which are likewise the source of our image of them. This view is always limited by the timeframe of the portraits, which were usually commissioned while the president was in office, or even posthumously, Consequently, our image of these figures is often of individuals in their advanced age, as there is often no portrait recording their appearance in their youth.

Such is the case of Martha Washington, George Washington’s wife, whose visage we know from the portraits Charles Wilson Peale (image above, lower left), and his younger brother James Peale (above, bottom center) as well as an unfinished portrait by Gilbert Stuart.

Author Patricia Brady, in the course of researching her fresh historic look at the original First Lady, Martha Washington: An American Life (more detail here), asked forensic anthropologists at the Louisiana State University Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services (FACES) Laboratory, who often do computerized age progressions (for instance, to determine what kidnapped children might look like as they get older), to do a computerized age regression of Martha Washington; based on the watercolor on ivory portrait by James Peale (above, bottom, center), which her grandchildren reported was a “striking likeness”.

By comparing bone structure, facial dimensions and proportions of features, the lab was able to produce an image of her likely appearance in her twenties.

The result was then used as a basis for a new portrait by illustrator Michael J. Deas, who has painted other portraits of historical figures from U.S. history; giving us a new image of Martha Washington as a vibrant, strikingly attractive young woman on the eve of her wedding (image above, lower right, with detail at top).

This image was subsequently used as the cover of Brady’s book, and prints of the image can be ordered from Deas’ web site.

Deas has shown her in a reconstruction of her wedding dress, and in a pose that she might have been asked to take for a painter of her time.

Here we see an image of the slim, charming, and strong young woman who ran five plantations after the death of her first husband, bargained with merchants, haggled over tobacco prices and followed her new husband into battle, and of whom patriot, soldier and future first president George Washington was deeply enamored.

Drew Struzan is one of the most widely recognized and influential poster artists of modern times. In addition, he is a versatile illustrator of book and comic covers, music LP and CD covers, advertising and other product illustrations.

I wrote about Struzan back in 2007. Since then his website has been redone with many additional images and reorganized into multiple sections. It not only showcases his Illustrated Works in various areas, but also provides an online gallery of his Studio Works.

The latter features a selection of paintings and drawings that range from fanciful interpretations of some of the famous faces he has worked with in his illustration, as well as imaginative images of a variety of subjects, including some nicely straightforward landscapes (image above, bottom right, Huntington Gardens, pastel and colored pencils on gray paper.)

I particularly enjoy the way Struzan works in the great tradition of movie posters, in which the stars and several dramatic sequences from the movie are worked into a single composition. It’s a treat to see the wide range of his illustration work and more of his personal and studio work as well.

The online galleries are set up in an interesting reverse of a common paradigm, in that the initial image is a detail crop, clicking on which goes to the full image of the work.

Some of the detail images show his work large enough to see his beautiful technique. In the detail of the image above, a poster for Big Trouble in Little China that I’m particularly fond of, you can see his handling of acryilc and colored pencil; a technique he uses to advantage to combine designerly elements with superb draftsmanship and lively, textural rendering (image above, bottom left).

The only awkward thing about the site is that there is no direct link between the Illustration and Studio sections without returning to the home page.

Gallery Nucleus, a sometime advertiser on Lines and Colors, has managed yet again to make me envious of those in their area (Alhambra California), by mounting a show of Struzan’s work, Drew Struzan: An Artist’s Vision, that runs from February 13 to March 2, 2009. The opening reception is this Friday, February 13 from 7:00 to 11:00PM, and the artist will be there.

In the meanwhile, those of us who are, oh say, 2,700 miles away, will be able to content ourselves with the terrific new site.