Prominent New Orleans artist John Clay Parker painted this portrait, his second of Armed Services Committee Chairman Eddie Hébert. Born in Mississippi in 1907, Parker studied in New York and spent the early part of his career in journalism. Editorial cartoons gave way to portraiture by the late 1920s. He shows the Chairman seated by his desk. The gavel, then becoming a common symbol of legislative power, is close at hand. His book, Creed of a Congressman is also nearby. In the background of the painting, Parker flanks the subject with the Department of Defense’s seal and the Hébert family coat of arms.
History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “Felix Edward Hébert,” http://history.house.gov/Collection/Detail (January 05, 2013)
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