The Faces of Justice

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About the book

This scholarly, non-fiction narrative written as a documentary timeline, tells the story about the planning and execution of the judicial portraits of the United States Federal Court of the District of Puerto Rico.

The unique historical significance of this series, is that it is the only time in the history of the United States federal court system that one single artist was chosen to paint the entire judicial history of a district court. The book opens with a brief background of the artist to offer an aesthetic context to the paintings and how his artistic style and development permitted him to be placed in this position.

The ensuing timeline covers in detail the course the court librarian took for finding the artist and how the artist approached and developed the portraits. A comprehensive description is given of his painting methods, choices of materials, etc. and describes how his close collaboration with the chief judge and the court librarian produced, in less than three years, this collection of the 35 portraits that spans the 107 years of the court’s entire history.

In detail; the United States district court for the district of Puerto Rico was established in 1900. A provisional court was established by the military government in 1898. The federal court in Puerto Rico never had any portraits made to celebrate and document the history of its judges. In 2003, the Chief Judge, Hon. José Antonio Fusté, began the process for finding and then commissioning the artist David Wells Roth, to paint the portraits of all the judges who have sat on the court. With the help of the court librarian Ana Milagros Rodriguez, his vision was brought to life.

This book is both a useful tool for artists who wish to pursue a direction in portraiture, as well as for those interested in the historical development of these portraits.