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Fit to Print, Fit to Paint


Reading the Newspaper, the Artist's Father The New York Times was first published on this day in 1851.

The reputable broadsheet still carries the famous motto "All the News That's Fit to Print" on its masthead. Artist Nicolai Fechin painted a portrait of his father, thoughtfully perusing a newspaper —as do millions of Times readers every day.

Fechin moved to the United States in 1923 from Kazan, Russia. The artist was close with his father, who had a woodworking, gilding, and construction shop, specializing in building church altars and the Orthodox iconostasis. In his father's shop, young Nicolai learned fine craftsmanship at a very early age, beginning to draw at the age of about six.

Source: Exhibition pamphlet, Nicolai Fechin Centennial Exhibition (Taos, New Mexico: Fechin House, 1981).

Pictured: Nicolai Fechin, 1881 Russia–1955 USA, Reading the Newspaper, the Artist's Father, 1916, oil, 17 5/8 x 14 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Arvin Gottlieb.