A portrait of Albert Einstein by Charles F. Ellis
By KC Ellis
One of my favorite portraits is the one of Albert Einstein. The painting is part of the CF Ellis Foundation collection currently residing in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
When I was quite young I accompanied my dad on a trip to the Princeton University campus. It may have been prior to April, 1955, but more likely the trip was after Einstein’s death. I don’t know if Charles Ellis met with Einstein. I am fairly certain I did not meet him myself, although if I had been introduced to the man late in his life it would not have made a great impression on me at that early age. My dad knew many people and when he would introduce them to me I just went along, a shy boy, more concerned with things around me than with strangers standing twice my size.
Still the question remains: Was this portrait made based only on photographs? Did my father actually meet Einstein at some point and did the great physicist actual sit for a portrait. What was the purpose of the trip to Princeton? The two men who know that answer are no longer available to confirm or deny. My guess is that my dad would have loved to present this portrait to Einstein, but was unable to before Einstein’s death. It may simply be a painting of a man whom my father greatly admired.
Charles was born seventeen years after the Theory of General Relativity was published and he grew up during the period of Einstein’s world renown genius, so it is understandable that this brilliant man of science would be idolized by the young artist. So whether the two ever met or if this was merely a tribute to a monumental figure of the 20th century is less important than the realization that this work exists as part of the legacy of Charles F. Ellis.
