Hands & Thumbs in Boston

When the Commonwealth of Massachusetts wanted a picture of former Governor Frank Gilman Allen to hang in the Boston State House, Governor Allen chose Manhattan Artist Henry Louis Wolff. Frank Gilman Allen is a big-handed leather tycoon who "would rather pick blueberries than do anything else" and can outpick his chauffeur ten quarts to six. Artist Wolff painted a portrait of a benignly smiling man with his big hands casually in his trousers pockets. Subject Allen was pleased. But last week in Boston the State

Art Commission withheld its approval, officially on artistic grounds, unofficially because hands in trousers pockets are, in Boston, "undignified."

The State Art Commission had protested another Governor's official portrait for the State House, because the subject's thumbs were too prominent. The subject was former Governor, now U. S. Senator David Ignatius Walsh, who once picked and sold blueberries for a living. When

Mr. Walsh approved, the Commission acquiesced. Last week in Manhattan, lest people think he could not paint hands, Artist Wolff said: "There was no question in former Governor Allen's mind of the propriety of his having his hands in his pockets. . . . However, if the portrait has to be changed in this respect, it can easily be done."

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