When Ulysses S. Grant entered the president’s office in 1869, echoes of the Civil War tensions that he helped to resolve still reverberated in his mind—and in the nation at large. In response, he commissioned a set of paintings to represent the Union’s indivisibility and to symbolize the nation’s post-war recovery.
“Liberty” by Constantino Brumidi is mounted on the ceiling of the White House entrance hall. White House Historical Association. (Public Domain)
The two paintings depict allegorical renderings of Liberty and Union, respectively, and were painted in the aesthetic style of 16th-century Venetian ceiling paintings, by Italian American artist Constantino Brumidi. He was a classically trained artist and immigrant who painted a number of United States Capitol murals….