Marcius Simmons
TR and Edith were genuine patrons of the artist Pinkney Marcius Simons who created colorful dreamlike land and seascapes. At Sagamore Hill no other artist is displayed more prominently. When he became President TR had, for the first time, had enough money to afford an expensive piece of American artwork. After he and Edith saw Marcius Simons' Light and Shadow Meet they both agreed Simons was an artist they wanted to collect. Today the painting is displayed over the fireplace.
On March 19, 1904 after seeing Simons' “Seats of the Mighty” he wrote the artist, “Seats of the Mighty impressed me so powerfully that I have ever since eagerly sought out any of your pictures of which I heard.”
Marcius was grateful for TR's support that he dedicated painting to the First Lady as gift. The painting was entitled “Victory” which he described as "the olive branch tendered to the world, but enforced by the sword of justice and might beneath." It originally hung over the fireplace, but now hangs outside the east door entrance to Edith's drawing room. Simons' described Victory as "the olive branch tendered to the world, but enforced by the sword of justice and might beneath."
Edith described the painting in a letter to her sister Emily Carow: "The color is quite beautiful and the picture will always be interesting historically." TR praised Simon's for his creative use of light, and the small picture in what he called the living room of the White House and said neither he, or Edith ever went into the room without looking at it.
While TR never personally met Simons the two corresponded. After Simon's death TR wrote: “Many Americans of wealth have rendered real service by bringing to this country collections of pictures by the masters of painting. But all of these men of wealth who have brought over paintings to this country, put together, have not added to the sum of productive civilization in this country as much as that strange, imaginative genius, Marcius-Simons, who was utterly neglected in life, who isn't known in death, but who will assuredly be known to generations that come after us as perhaps the greatest imaginative colorist since Turner.” Joseph Turner was born April 23, 1775.
