return JOHN C. CALHOUN (1782-1850) by George Peter Alexander Healy (1813-1894) South Carolina's John C. Calhoun was a formidable presence in American politics for nearly four decades. He served twice as Vice President under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson and in two cabinets. During his years in the Senate, from 1832 to 1843 and again from 1845 until his death, he had his greatest impact as a champion of southern interests and formulator of the states'-rights theory of America's political union. At the time that G. P. A. Healy painted Calhoun, the Boston-born artist was enjoying great success as a portrait painter in Paris. Undertaking a commission from King Louis-Philippe to paint a series of portraits of American statesmen, Healy probably painted the life portrait of Calhoun when he returned to the United States in 1845. There are four bust-length versions of the portrait, as well as a full-length that Healy painted for the Charleston City Council after Calhoun's death in 1850. Oil on canvas, circa 1845 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution NPG.90.52 return