Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, White House Collection

This portrait of First Lady Edith Carow Roosevelt was painted in 1902 by Théobald Chartran, a French artist who became one of the most fashionable portraitists of the early twentieth century. Mrs. Roosevelt, wife of President Theodore Roosevelt who served in office from September 14, 1901 until March 4, 1909, poses in the colonial garden, known today as the Rose Garden, which she established near the White House's new West Wing. Chartran repositioned the South Portico so it would appear in the portrait for aesthetic effect.