Painted portrait of John Hugh Reynolds

Item

Legacies Classification
Memorial Artwork
Memorial Type
Visual Work of Art
Memorial Context
Memorialized Subject
Title
Painted portrait of John Hugh Reynolds
Background and Context
This portrait of late Hendrix president John Hugh Reynolds hangs among other presidential portraits in Mills A, one of Hendrix’s three, and largest, lecture halls on campus in the Mills Center for Social Sciences. Reynolds was the fourth and longest-serving president of Hendrix College, which he led from 1913 to 1945. He has been revered as one of the most influential figures in Hendrix’s history, as he helped to increase the college’s endowment, student population, number of buildings, and faculty size. Despite these accomplishments, President Reynolds upheld the ideology of the Lost Cause, reflected in his textbook "Makers of Arkansas History," first published in 1905, and in hosting blackface fraternity parties at his home in the 1940s.

The artist, Adrian Brewer, was a prominent landscape and portrait artist who painted over 300 Arkansans in his lifetime. Though the exact date of the picture’s publication is unclear, the majority of his portraits of university presidents and senators occurred while he resided in Arkansas between 1929 and 1935.
Physical Description
Oil on canvas. Framed size: 30'' x 35''
Memorial Inscription
"John Hugh Reynolds, A.M., LL.D.
President of Hendrix College 1913-1945"
Creator/Participating Person(s)
Brewer, Adrian
Funded by
Hendrix College
Location: Institution, City, State

Position: 606 (109 views)