Howard Koslow (American, 1924 - 2016) "Mt. Rushmore and U.S. Flag" Signed lower left. Original Acrylic painting on Cold Press Illustration Board. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting is the original which was published on the Fleetwood First Day of Issue Maximum Card for the U.S. 29c Flag Over Mt. Rushmore stamp issued March 29, 1991. America, in its vastness, has many natural wonders befitting a great nation. Yet of all these, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, located southwest of Rapid City, South Dakota, is a bit unusual, for it is both a natural and man-made wonder. Each year, more than two million visitors gaze in wonder at the stern visages of four great men who molded the nation, their faces carved from a huge mountain of solid granite. Legendary men all, with ideas as rock solid as their granite profiles. In 1927, Gutzon Borglum, an impassioned student of Rodin in Paris, began the nation's most ambitious sculpture. Working for fourteen years, Borglum guided his crews in meticulously measuring, marking and chiseling into the tough granite of the 5,725-foot high mountain. "There is not a monument in the country as big as a snuff box," he exclaimed before he began his huge project. It was a task which he would not live to see completed. His son, Lincoln, closed down the project in 1941. Each of the presidential faces is as high as a six story building. George Washington looks out across a country he helped to create; Thomas Jefferson gazes over land he acquired through the purchase of the Louisiana Territory; Theodore Roosevelt's square-jawed countenance rises above forests he helped preserve -- and finally, Abraham Lincoln eternally watches over a union he kept under one flag. Image Size: 8.75 x 12.25 in. Overall Size: 13.75 x 17.25 in. Unframed. (B13000)