Portrait of the Truman Family by Greta Kempton

Greta Kempton's Portrait of the Truman Family (President Harry S. Truman, Elizabeth “Bess” Truman and their daughter Mary Margaret) is on permanent exhibition at SHSMO. The triple portrait was commissioned for the State Historical Society of Missouri with left-over funds raised by Missouri Democrats for Truman’s 1948 inaugural celebration. The painting was officially presented to the Society in 1952. The artist, Greta Kempton, was Truman's favorite portrait painter, and she did many official and private portraits for the family.  An Austrian-American painter, Kempton was known for wearing formal attire as she painted, assuming an elegant manner that encouraged her sitters to adopt similarly polished and gracious demeanors.