HARRIET FITZGERALD (American, 1904–1984)

George in Green Tie (Portrait of G.J.K. #2), 1975
oil on paper

Collection of the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts
The Jack Blanton Collection
Promised gift of Jack Blanton
2012.12.24

Harriet Fitzgerald often painted her friend George Keisker, who worked in New York at the office of Spring Mills. In most of the four “George” portraits in the Jack Blanton Collection, Keisker is shown wearing a tie and jacket, with his head tilted to the side. Asked why Fitzgerald painted so many pictures of Keisker, her long-time partner Peggy Anderson replied that George was just around all the time and they were good friends. He had a fun personality and didn’t mind being a model. Keisker himself painted for a time and was a member of the Abingdon Square Painters, an artists’ cooperative Fitzgerald founded in the late 1940s.