Michael Gnatek Jr., Historical Portraitist, 72

[DGH]

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Michael Gnatek Jr., a leading artist of historical portraits, who also
illustrated an infamous Washington Post story about a nonexistent child
heroin addict in 1980, died September 28, 2006, at Suburban Hospital in
the metropolitan Washington DC area, from complications of multiple
myeloma, having lived in Washington DC until moving early this year to
Manor Care at Chevy Chase, Maryland, at the age of 72.

Mr. Gnatek (pronounced guh-NAH-tek) received his art training at Yale
University and in the Marine Corps, where he was a combat artist and
portraitist for the weekly Sunset Parade at Washington's Marine
Barracks.

He worked in advertising for many years, first with department stores
and later at his agency while polishing a talent for painting portraits
of historical figures. Long interested in history, Mr. Gnatek began to
accept commissions on historical subjects and in 1975 did four murals
for the National Air and Space Museum. He painted a mural on the
history of the telephone for Disney World in Florida.

He became a specialist in portraits of military figures and American
Indians and found his work in demand by historical societies, private
collectors and commercial galleries nationwide. In the early 1990s, he
closed his advertising agency, Gnatek Associates, to concentrate on
painting.

The family of Gen. George S. Patton commissioned a portrait of the
general, and Mr. Gnatek's other subjects included Robert E. Lee,
Stonewall Jackson, George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull and buffalo
soldiers of the 19th century.

Each oil or acrylic portrait took Mr. Gnatek four to six months to
finish, as he immersed himself in documents and visual records to give
each brush stroke historical authenticity. His studio was filled with
antique rifles, clothing and saddles, and he sometimes took part in
Civil War reenactments.

Mr. Gnatek was born in Hadley, Massachusetts, and had an early interest
in art. He studied painting at Yale with abstract artist Josef Albers,
served in the Marine Corps from 1955 to 1958 and then settled in
Washington DC. He was an advertising artist for Hecht's and Raleigh's
department stores and for advertising agencies before opening Gnatek
Associates in the early 1970s. His clients included the D.C. Chamber of
Commerce and the D.C. Lottery.

Mr. Gnatek's experience in the Marines, where he often made on-the-spot
sketches of officers, was useful in executing freelance jobs on
deadline. In September 1980, Mr. Gnatek was assigned by The Post to
make a drawing to accompany "Jimmy's World," a story about an
8-year-old heroin addict by then-Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke.

In several meetings with the artist, Cooke became emotional, Mr.
Gnatek's family said, as she described "Jimmy" and the sordid world in
which he lived. When she saw Mr. Gnatek's shadowy black-and-white
portrait of a thin, wide-eyed boy, she told Mr. Gnatek, "That's exactly
what he looked like."

The story, which ran September 28, 1980, created an immediate
sensation, as lawmakers called for prosecution of drug dealers preying
on the young, and D.C. Mayor Marion Barry ordered hundreds of police
officers and social workers to search the city for "Jimmy."

Part of the story's impact came from Mr. Gnatek's grim, memorable
portrait, described in a 1981 article by Washington Post ombudsman Bill
Green: "It shows a young man, his face twisted in a half-smile, huge
eyes watching, his slender arm gripped by a huge fist as a needle is
injected."

Cooke's story was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in
1981 but was soon exposed as a hoax. Admitting that "Jimmy" did not
exist, she resigned under pressure, and The Post returned her Pulitzer.

"My father said he was as shocked as anyone," said Mr. Gnatek's son
Michael. "He was completely convinced that she had met 'Jimmy' or
somebody like him."

Mr. Gnatek was a member of the Society of American Historical Artists
and the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in
Washington DC.

His wife of 34 years, Mary Shaffer Gnatek, died in 1999.

Survivors include three children, Michael Gnatek of Leesburg, Virginia,
George Gnatek of Washington DC and Mary Gnatek Harper of Kensington,
Maryland; four brothers; two sisters; and five grandchildren.

Washington Post -- Matt Schudel