By Request! Thomas Jefferson

Someone requested an updated pic of Thomas Jefferson. He's my second favorite prez, after Abraham Lincoln. I found this young portrait by Mather Brown. 

Here's the update. A few months ago, I had a dream that a confused Thomas Jefferson knocked at my door. One second, he was walking into a room at Monticello and he next, he was standing in front of an apartment door. Once I quizzed him unmercifully and accepted this bizarre tale, we had a great time.

Jefferson was a red-head. He's got a bit of a Conan O'Brien look, doesn't he. Both he and George Washington were 6'2" -- tall for the 18th century. The average height for men in the American colonies in the 1770s was 5'8". That was three inches taller than in Britain, which was most certainly due to a better diet.
 

Something Different - Updated Presidents and Assorted Famous People

 I've whiled away my Christmas vacation hours fixing up some paintings or photographs of Founding Fathers in clothing and hairstyles of more modern times, suitable to their characters. Here, I've made over George Washington. He had dark brown hair under that white wig or powdered hair we usually see and was considered to be a very attractive man in his younger days. Being over 6 feet tall, he must have cut an impressive figure. Amusingly, I've read a number of articles about the frequent admiration of Washington's muscular thighs in his time. Considering the snug breeches worn back then, skinny thighs would be most unattractive! 

I took this painting of George in his middling years, wearing his early Revolutionary War/Colonial army uniform. It features the buff and blue Whig colors. 

I left the face untouched, except for a bit of "smoothing" on the rough textures. I added a slightly modern pompadour haircut (which may not be military standard!), and the uniform is one worn by General George Patton during the Second World War. When I put it together, I saw a striking resemblance to the actor Robert Stack, a tall, dark, and handsome leading man in the mid-1900s, but most famous to modern TV viewers as the host of "Unsolved Mysteries". He was also the original Elliott Ness in "The Untouchables" television show.

Hortense Mancini by Jacob Ferdinand Voet, 1675

Erzherzogin Magdalena von Habsburg, Giuseppe Archimboldo, 1563.

Arrow Collar Advertisement by Joseph Christian Leyendecker, ca.1920.

Mid-Winter, by Louise Fenne, 2010.

Faiyum Mummy Portrait, artist unknown, 2nd c.CE