The news that US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has spent the last 20 years taking an undisclosed luxury vacation at the expense of Republican donor Harlan Crow comes with a bizarre artistic angle: Crow immortalized their time together in a painting that hung in his home at Camp Topridge, a massive compound in upstate New York’s Adirondack Park.
It is a photorealistic work that depicts Crow and Thomas with attorneys Peter Rutledge, Leonard Leo and Mark Paoletta, all portrayed by ProPublica, who broke the story, as “conservative agents” – sitting in rustic wooden rocking chairs at Crow’s Resort. (Leo, a leader of the Federalist Society, was reportedly instrumental in confirming a third of current Supreme Court justices, including Thomas, who has faced allegations of sexual harassment during his hearings.)
Surrounded by verdant trees, the five men sit beneath the statue of a shirtless Native American that towers skyward. Crow wears a long-sleeved gingham shirt and khaki shorts that end above the knee with strappy sandals. Thomas wears a striped blue polo shirt and casual vest with khaki pants and brown shoes. The two men smoke cigars.
The canvas is the work of Cherif Tarabaya Montreal illustrator replaced by John Brewster Creative Services in Westport, Connecticut. His artistic influences would be painters of the 19th and 20th centuries, in particular Norman Rockwell And Haddon Hubbard Sundbloman American illustrator best known for the Coca-Cola Santa Claus, believed to be the first modern depiction of the legendary Christmas saint.
Tarabay told ProPublica that the painting scene is from five years ago and it’s not the only Thomas painting he’s done. Recently, Crow presented Thomas and his wife with a portrait of themselves, also commissioned from Tarabay. (As of press time, the artist had not responded to inquiries from Artnet News.)
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas flew on Republican donor Harlan Crown’s private plane for the dedication of a statue to Thomas’ eighth-grade teacher, Sister Mary Virgilius Reidy, in a Mahwah Cemetery, New Jersey. Crow also paid for the sculpture. Photo courtesy of the Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Newark.
The double portrait is part of a long series of lavish gifts from Crow, a billionaire property developer, to Thomas, including Frederick Douglass’ Bible, which cost $19,000. Thomas revealed the gift, but ProPublica found the judge remained silent during the annual Camp Topridge vacation, as well as other trips on Crow’s yacht and private plane — travel arrangements that reportedly cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, if Thomas had paid the price. invoice itself.
Among Thomas’ many flights aboard Crow’s jet was a trip from Washington, D.C., to Maryrest Cemetery in Mahwah, New Jersey, for the dedication of a seven-foot-tall statue of the judge’s mentor and teacher. eighth grade, Sister Mary Virgilius Reidy. (The nun, who died in 2013 at the age of 100, testified on behalf of her former student when confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1991.)
Crow not only covered Thomas’ transportation needs for the 2021 event, he also paid for the statue himself, according to the Jersey Catholic. The work, by the Austin sculptor Gary McElhaneyweighed 1,800 pounds, plus the granite base weighed 16,557 pounds.
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