Not one of the more important questions one might ask about the Johnson presidency, and Caro still owes us a book, but.... Here's a link. It's a fact that Johnson despised this painting, by Peter Hurd. A recent article in Smithsonian delves into the question: why? It is in one respect compositionally innovative. I'm sure Johnson didn't actually model for the painting standing on the roof of the Library of Congress, Hurd placed him there by act of imagination. The result, a view of the Capitol Dome and environs that makes Johnson seem both towering and reflexive. Not a bad day's work. Why did Johnson despise it? Perhaps the simple asymmetry of it. Maybe he had the preconceived notion that the subject of a portrait is 'supposed' to be in the center, with a neutral background. Maybe the conjoined fact that he's portrayed on a roof, and holding a book, was off-putting, Does the L of C let people take books to the roof with them? IS there even a...