Robert Chester La Follette (March 31, 1897 in

Pullman, Washington Pullman () is the largest city in Whitman County, located in southeastern Washington within the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. The population was 29,799 at the 2010 census, and estimated to be 34,506 in 2019. Originally founded as Thr ...

– May 24, 1993 in

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , su ...

), was an American painter. His portrait of his cousin Senator

Robert M. La Follette, Sr. Robert Marion "Fighting Bob" La Follette Sr. (June 14, 1855June 18, 1925), was an American lawyer and politician. He represented Wisconsin in both chambers of Congress and served as the 20th Governor of Wisconsin. A Republican for most of his ...

hangs in the Senate Reception Room of the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

Allyn Cox Allyn Cox (June 5, 1896 – September 26, 1982) was an American artist known for his murals, including those he painted in the United States Capitol and the U. S. Department of State. Early life Cox was a son of Kenyon Cox and his wife, the f ...

supervised the placement of the painting in the United States Capitol.

Family

Chester La Follette was a member of the politically prominent

La Follette family The La Follette family is a prominent family in the United States, especially in Wisconsin. Many of the family members have pursued political office. Members * Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (1855–1925), District Attorney of Dane County, Wisconsi ...

. He was the son of Congressman

William La Follette William Leroy La Follette (November 30, 1860 – December 20, 1934) was a four-term member of the United States House of Representatives representing Washington. He represented the 3rd District from 1911 to 1915, and the 4th District from 1915 ...

and nephew of educator, industrialist

Harvey Marion LaFollette Harvey Marion LaFollette (September 8, 1858 – September 20, 1929) was an American teacher and educator, who as a young man, served two terms as Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction. He then moved to Tennessee, where he established the tow ...

. He was the brother of Washington state attorney and legislator William Leroy LaFollette, Jr. The libertarian editor and writer

Suzanne La Follette Suzanne Clara La Follette (June 24, 1893 – April 23, 1983) was an American journalist and author who advocated for libertarian feminism in the first half of the 20th century. As an editor she helped found several magazines. She was an early and a ...

was his sister.

Early years and education

He was born in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

into a pioneer family. His grandparents had crossed the

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what ...

into the

Oregon Territory The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. Ori ...

in the 1840s. His father had become one of the largest fruit exporters in the state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

before being elected to Congress in 1910. Chester completed his early education in Pullman and continued high school in Washington DC when his family relocated there. The two LaFollette families shared a large house that the Congressman had purchased, and Chester spent his teen age years in the midst of lively discussions of the great events of the day. During this period he was introduced to the sculptor

Vinnie Ream Lavinia Ellen "Vinnie" Ream Hoxie (September 25, 1847 – November 20, 1914) was an American sculptor. Her most famous work is the statue of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in the United States Capitol rotunda. Ream's '' Statue of Sequoyah' ...

and was influenced by her passion and technique.

Career in New York

In the early 1920s Chester joined his sister, Suzanne, in New York City. He studied the violin, and continued to work on his sculpture and painting techniques. In the mid-1920s he journeyed to Paris to continue his musical studies and to refine his painting. He spent many long hours in museums viewing the masters. When he returned to New York, he married a talented pianist from Oregon, Dorothea Anderson, and together they ran a musical studio in their Central Park West apartment for the next thirty years.]

Portrait of cousin

When Senator

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

's Committee announced that Robert M. La Follette, Sr. had been selected one of the five great senators, Chester actively and successfully sought to win the commission for the portrait of the man he had shared so many meals with during his teenage years. His portrait was unveiled in the Senate Reception Room in 1959.

Sources

Chester La Follette painting of Senator Robert La Follette, Sr.Gems of the Capitol
{{DEFAULTSORT:La Follette, Chester 1897 births 1993 deaths People from Pullman, Washington La Follette family Painters from Washington (state) 20th-century American painters American male painters American people of French descent 20th-century American male artists