Capturing a person’s likeness in paint is never easy, especially when the painting is the size of a stamp. And when the stamp subject is dearly beloved by the American public and considered to be one of the most influential Presidents of the 20th century, the pressure mounts.
Now try doing that twice in fairly quick succession — and that’s the combination of challenges the design team faced with the Ronald Reagan Centennial stamp.
Reagan was first honored with a memorial stamp in 2005, one year after his death. The practice is standard after the death of an American President.
But a centennial stamp is a rarer honor — even more so when issued only five years after another release. So the task of distinguishing this design from the last while retaining Reagan’s likeness posed an obstacle.
“We agreed the previous stamp artwork by Michael Deas was brilliant,” says Layne Owens, acting manager of Stamp Development, “but that the centennial stamp shouldn’t try to replicate what was previously done. So from the beginning, we decided to use a different artist, style, and shape to set this stamp apart.”
Because the 2005 issuance was a vertical commemorative featuring a realistic, formal portrait of Reagan, art director Ethel Kessler and the Reagan family agreed that a casual image in a square format would work best.
Kessler sought an illustrator with a more interpretive style — one that would move away from the iconic presidential image toward Ronald Reagan the man. She found her solution in the loose, painterly quality of stamp artist Bart Forbes’ work.
Forbes decided to base the art on a 1985 photo of Reagan at ease at Rancho del Cielo, his California ranch. But the photo posed yet another challenge: Reagan’s left hand rested in front of his chin, partially covering his mouth. When the portrait was reduced to stamp size, the hand seemed to dominate the space.
“We were sensitive to the fact,” Owens explains, “that a lot of people would object to obscuring the face of a man who’s so well-known for his smile.”
So Forbes was tasked with moving the hand away from Reagan’s face and recreating his smile using other reference photos — none of which were taken from quite the same angle.
The initial sketches presented to Mrs. Reagan and the Reagan Library staff were close, but did not yet feel just right. “When you’re presenting artwork to people who are very, very attuned to every nuance of a person’s features,” Owens says, “it’s always difficult.”
But Forbes persisted. After combining three photos into one painting, he created an image that both the Reagan family and the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee were pleased with.
The 2011 release stands apart from the past stamp both in style and format, and has warranted its own praise. At the stamp unveiling, Mrs. Reagan told Forbes, “It’s just a wonderful likeness, and it captures his spirit.” (Watch a video of the stamp unveiling.)
“When the family says you did it right,” says Owens, “that’s the success of the stamp program.”
Photo Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library