"Generous Contribution"

Portrait painters have never done much business with John D. Rockefeller Sr. Until last week there were only two known portraits of him that he had paid for. John Singer Sargent had done them both. Last week a third was added. The painter was one Michael Matsakas, 36, a Greek Chicagoan with curly black sideburns, who has been a busboy, wrestler and interior decorator in public; a poet, philosopher and painter in private. The price: a used pale blue necktie.

Michael Matsakas has never sold a painting, never exhibited one in a gallery, never painted a nude. He had long looked upon Mr. Rockefeller as a great man. Last autumn Michael Matsakas painted his portrait from a photograph, a firmly painted, kindly portrait of a hale old man wearing a dark blue tie. For a Christmas present he sent it to Mr. Rockefeller with a note, "I always have been a great admirer of yours and the wonderful things you have done for humanity." A month later, just after New Year's Day, he got it back with a note from Mr. Rockefeller's secretary: "Mr. Rockefeller is deeply appreciative of your kind thought . . . also of your beautiful letter. "Mr. Rockefeller and his friends think it would be an improvement if the necktie could be brought to a different shade of blue, and we are taking the liberty of sending you the portrait, express prepaid, and one of Mr. Rockefeller's ties which represents the shade of blue which he has been in the "habit of wearing, and if it is your pleasure to add this improvement to your already generous contribution if you will then return the portrait, express collect, we will send you our thoughts respecting the picture as a whole. "Our friends think that if the lines of the coat were a little more clearly defined. . . ." At the bottom of the letter was a tracing of a stickpin with the note, "This is the exact size of Mr. Rockefeller's stick-pin-- without diamond." Artist Matsakas profited from these criticisms and two weeks later sent the revised portrait to Florida. He carefully laid away the tie. Last week a Chicago newspaper reported that Matsakas "has called our attention to the fact" of the portrait, the correspondence and the tie. Said Matsakas, "I gave the picture to Mr. Rockefeller as a gift, and naturally expected no remuneration. He wrote me a very friendly letter of thanks." When all U. S. newspapers took up the story, polite Artist Matsakas again wrote Mr. Rockefeller, to apologize for the publicity, reassure him that he was not "expecting remuneration."

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