The Grouseland Foundation bought the oil painting in a 2012 art auction but didn’t put it on display at the house in Vincennes until last week as it worked to finalize a donation to pay for it, the Vincennes Sun-Commercial reported.
Lisa Ice-Jones, the foundation’s executive director, said she believes having the portrait helps validate the house as a presidential home site.
Harrison lived at the house known as Grouseland from 1804 until 1812. The portrait was painted in early 1841 about the time he was sworn in as the country’s ninth president, although he died 32 days later from complications from pneumonia.
Grouseland is Harrison’s only remaining home as his Ohio estate, where he lived before being elected president and while serving as a senator there, burned in 1858.
“When we do our interpretation here, we tell people all about his life on the frontier and what he did here,” Ice-Jones said. “But this painting brings everything full-circle. He went on to become president. It just seals the deal.”
The donation to pay the painting’s cost came from the family of Lucille Villwock, a 30-year member of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution who died in 2012. The price of the painting wasn’t disclosed.
Ice-Jones said Villwock had always talked about wanting to do something big for Grouseland, but the opportunity to buy the portrait came after her death.
“Lucille was a lover of history and antiques,” Ice-Jones said. “And I feel like her family now feels like they have fulfilled her wishes.”
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Information from: Vincennes Sun-Commercial, http://www.vincennes.com
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