United Nations
Twenty years after making portraits of the delegates of the League of Nations, Violet Oakley was commissioned to visually document the inaugural sessions of the newly formed United Nations. In 1944, the Washington Conversations on International Peace and Security Organization, known as the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prompted speculation about an American location for the United Nations. The following year, the Philadelphia Record initiated a campaign to become the host city with the front-page article “Philadelphia—Home of the United Nations” that echoed Oakley’s statements about William Penn’s pioneering role in international relations in The Holy Experiment: A Message to the World from Pennsylvania (1922) and Law Triumphant: A Portfolio in Two Parts Containing the Opening of the Book of the Law and the Miracle of Geneva (1933).1 “Philadelphia, more than any other city in the world, embodies those spiritual values which would inspire and strengthen the United Nations,” with the “ideals of its founder, William Penn, a pioneer in liberalism and tolerance.”2 The fact that the United Nations was organized in the year of the tercentenary of William Penn’s birth seemed prophetic to Oakley, who began working on a commemorative volume titled The Holy Experiment: Our Heritage from William Penn 1644–1944. When New York won the competition, she was called upon to represent Philadelphia at the inaugural sessions at Hunter College in 1946.
Robert McLean, owner and editor of the Evening Bulletin, the Philadelphia newspaper with the largest national evening circulation, hired Oakley to act as correspondent to the United Nations. For five weeks in May and June 1946 she drew portraits of the delegates, sketched the sessions and recorded her observations. The Bulletin published her drawings and commentary in “Journal of an Artist at the United Nations” on June 24 and “Some of the U.N. Leaders Helping to Shape New World as Seen by Artist Violet Oakley” on June 28.3 Described as “snowy-haired, patrician in her bearing, peppery when defending her ideals such as world peace,” Oakley had lobbied a member of the Security Council who posed for her to move the United Nations to Philadelphia.4 “Since they still may change their minds as to the permanent seat of the organized world, I offered the City of Brotherly Love,” Oakley reported. “I assured him that Philadelphia would have the right spirit, would understand the greatness of their work and rejoice to have it develop and grow upon the soil of Penn’s holy experiment.”5 As a tribute to the peace-making Quakers, she recommended renaming the international organization the “United Nations: A Society of Friends.”6
As an artist at the United Nations, Oakley worked under different conditions than she had at the League of Nations, where she had kept a private studio. Nevertheless, she was able to produce twenty finished chalk portraits and many drawings of the delegates in session, including Norwegian politician Trygve Halvdan Lie, first secretary general of the United Nations; Alexandre Parodi, the French Resistance leader and diplomat; and Andrei Gromyko, representative of the USSR at the Security Council. She inscribed her portrait of Bernard Baruch of the Atomic Energy Commission with quotations from his speech about controlling nuclear proliferation: “The bomb does not wait on debate” and “The only protection is the abolition of war.” McLean donated twenty of Oakley’s United Nations portraits and drawings to Woodmere Art Museum.
1 Elton Atwater, “Philadelphia's Quest to Become the Permanent Headquarters of the United Nations,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 100 (2).
2 Charlene Mires, Capital of the World: The Race to Host the United Nations (New York: New York University Press, 2013): 21.
3 "Journal of an Artist at the United Nations,” Evening Bulletin, June 24, 1946; “Some of the U.N. Leaders Helping to Shape New World as Seen by Artist Violet Oakley,” Evening Bulletin, June 28, 1946.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
Works in Woodmere's Collection
Dr. Pedro Leão Veloso (1887–1947), Delegate from Brazil to the United Nations
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Andrei A. Gromyko (1909–1989), Delegate from the USSR to the United Nations
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Dr. Peng-Chun Chang (1892-1957), Delegate from China to the United Nations
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Dr. Charles Malik (1906-1987), Delegate from Lebanon to the United Nations
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Max H. Dorsinville (1910-2005), Delegate from Haiti, Addressing the Assembly of the United Nations
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Edward R. Stettinius Jr. (1900-1949), Delegate from the United States to the United Nations
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Dr. Oskar Lange (1904–1965), Delegate from Poland to the United Nations United Nations Security Council
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Sir Ramaswami Mudaliar (1887-1976), Delegate from India to the United Nations
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Sir Alexander Cadogan (1884–1968), Delegate from the United Kingdom to the United Nations
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Alexandre Parodi (1901–1979), Delegate from France to the United Nations
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Sir Paul Hasluck (1905–1993), Delegate from Australia and Dr. Pedro Leão Veloso (1887–1947), Delegate from Brazil to the United Nations
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Dr. Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens (1894-1983), Delegate from the Netherlands to the United Nations
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Sir Paul Hasluck (1905–1993), Delegate from Australia to the United Nations,
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Ambassador Hossein Ala' (1882–1964), Delegate from Iran to the United Nations and Ambassador to the United States
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Bernard M. Baruch (1870-1965), Representative from the United States to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission
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Dr. Herbert Vere Evatt (1894-1965), Delegate from Australia to the United Nations
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John G. Winant (1889-1947), United States Representative to U.N.E.S.C.O.
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Trygve Lie (1896-1968), from Norway, Secretary-General of the United Nations
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Herschel Vespasian Johnson, United States Deputy Representative to the United Nations
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Portrait study of Hafez Afifi Pasha from Egypt and Paul Hasluck from Australia, delegates to the United Nations
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Portrait study of delegates from France and Poland to the United Nations
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Sir Alexander Cadogan (1884–1968), delegate from the United Kingdom to the United Nations
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Portrait study of Alexandre Parodi, delegate from France to the United Nations
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Portrait study of Dr. Pedro Leão Veloso, chairman of the Brazilian delegation to the United Nations
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Dr. Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens, representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations [Security Council]
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Portrait study of Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., delegate from the United States to the United Nations
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Portrait study of Philip J. Noel-Baker, delegate from the United Kingdom to the United Nations and the Economic and Social Council
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Portrait study of Nikolai I. Feonov, delegate from the U.S.S. R. to the United Nations
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Portrait study of Sir Alexander Cadogan (1884–1968), delegate from the United Kingdom to the United Nations
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Portrait study of Dr. Charles Malik (1906-1987), delegate from Lebanon to the United Nations
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Portrait study of Dr. Herbert Vere Evatt, head of the Australian delegation to the United Nations [General Assembly]
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Portrait study of Dr. Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens, representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations [Security Council]
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Portrait study of Charles Malik, representative of Lebanon to the United Nations
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Portrait head studies of Dr. Pedro Leão Veloso, chairman of the Brazilian delegation to the United Nations
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Portrait study of Dr. Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens, representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations [Security Council]
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Group portrait study of delegates Nikolai I. Feonov, from U.S.S.R., and Philip J. Noel-Baker, from the United Kingdom, to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations
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Portrait study of Philip J. Noel-Baker, delegate from the United Kingdom to the United Nations and the Economic and Social Council
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Portrait study of Dr. Herbert Vere Evatt, head of the Australian delegation to the United Nations [General Assembly]
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Portrait study of Hafez Afifi Pasha, delegate from Egypt to the United Nations, delivering the farewell address at the close of session
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Portrait study of Andrei A. Gromyko, delegate from the U.S.S.R. to the United Nations, protesting [to the UN Security Council]
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Portrait study of Andrei A. Gromyko, delegate from the U.S.S.R. to the United Nations
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Portrait study of Nikolai I. Feonov, delegate from the U.S.S.R. to the United Nations
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Portrait study of Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., delegate from the United States to the United Nations, [attending a Security Council meeting]
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Portrait sketch of Alexandre Parodi, delegate from France to the United Nations
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Portrait study seen from the back of Dr. Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens, representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations [Security Council]
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