Unfinished portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt

The unfinished portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt is a watercolor of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States, by Elizabeth Shoumatoff. Shoumatoff was commissioned to paint a portrait of Roosevelt and started her work around noon on April 12, 1945. At lunch, while sitting for the portrait, Roosevelt complained of a headache and subsequently collapsed. The president, who had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, died later that day. FDR had galloping hypertension for several years before. The FDR Library Virtual Tour notes that about 15 minutes after the cerebral hemorrhage, arterial tension was measured at well over 300 systolic, diastolic 190.

While Shoumatoff never finished the portrait, she later painted a new one from memory, which wound up being largely identical. The unfinished portrait hangs at the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia, Roosevelt's personal retreat, with the finished version beside it.