Elizabeth Shoumatoff was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 painter who was best known for painting the Unfinished Portrait

Unfinished portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Unfinished Portrait is a watercolor of Franklin Delano Roosevelt that was in progress at the time of his collapse and subsequent death. Elizabeth Shoumatoff had begun working on the portrait of the president around noon on April 12, 1945...

 of Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

.

Shoumatoff was born into an aristocratic family in tsarist Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

. Her brother Andrey Avinoff

Andrey Avinoff

Andrey Avinoff sometimes referred to as Andrej Nikolajewitsch Avinoff or Andrei Avinoff, was a Russian entomologist and painter who became Director of the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.He was especially interested in Lepidoptera among many other interests...

 was prominent entomologist and artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

. Elizabeth Shoumatoff emigrated to the United States in 1917, eventually making her home on Long Island

Long Island

Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

. Her extraordinary talent for portraiture brought commissions from some of the most illustrious families in America, Great Britain and Europe.