Skip to main content

The Credibility Gulf Stream

The Credibility Gulf Stream
Usage Conditions Apply
Artist
Draper Hill, 1 Jul 1935 - 13 May 2009
Sitter
Richard Milhous Nixon, 9 Jan 1913 - 22 Apr 1994
Date
1973
Type
Drawing
Medium
Ink over graphite with gouache on paper
Dimensions
Image: 29.6 × 41 cm (11 5/8 × 16 1/8")
Sheet: 29.6 × 44.3 cm (11 5/8 × 17 7/16")
Mount: 30.9 × 44.5 cm (12 3/16 × 17 1/2")
Topic
Exterior\Waterscape\Seascape
Vehicle\Boat
Cartoon\Political
Illustration
Richard Milhous Nixon: Male
Richard Milhous Nixon: Law and Crime\Lawyer
Richard Milhous Nixon: Literature\Writer
Richard Milhous Nixon: Politics and Government\Vice-President of US
Richard Milhous Nixon: Military and Intelligence\Navy\Officer
Richard Milhous Nixon: Politics and Government\President of US
Richard Milhous Nixon: Politics and Government\US Senator\California
Richard Milhous Nixon: Politics and Government\US Congressman\California
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of John Wilmerding
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Object number
NPG.2006.50
Exhibition Label
This caricature of President Nixon in peril at sea is a spoof on Winslow Homer’s Famous 1899 painting The Gulf Stream. The cartoon features the same narrative compositional elements—the broken mast, the bowsprit off the bow, the sharks circling the boat, and the funnel of a waterspout in the stormy background. However, the artist, Draper Hill, has omitted the ship on the horizon—and with it, any hope of rescue. Nixon sits in the stern, with his back to the gunwale, stuck adrift with only the tapes from his office that definitively incriminated him in the Watergate scandal. Dejectedly, he grasps evidence of his plunging popularity in the polls.
This caricature was published just after Alexander Butterfield, a former aide to the president, revealed the existence of Nixon’s secret Oval Office taperecording system in his testimony to the Senate committee on July 16, 1973.
Esta caricatura del presidente Nixon en peligro en altamar es una parodia de la famosa pintura La corriente del Golfo de 1899, obra de Winslow Homer. El dibujo presenta los mismos elementos compositivos en su narración: el mástil roto, el bauprés de la proa partido, los tiburones rodeando la embarcación y el embudo de una tromba marina en el tempestuoso fondo. Sin embargo, el artista, Draper Hill, ha omitido el barco que se divisa en el horizonte, y con él, cualquier esperanza de rescate. Nixon está sentado en la popa, de espaldas a la borda, atrapado a la deriva solo con las cintas de su oficina que definitivamente lo incriminaban en el escándalo de Watergate. Desalentado, sujeta las pruebas del desplome de su popularidad en las encuestas.
Esta caricatura se publicó justo después de que Alexander Butterfield, un antiguo asesor del presidente, revelara la existencia de un sistema de grabación secreto en el despacho oval de Nixon en su testimonio ante el comité del Senado el 16 de julio de 1973.
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Location
Currently not on view