Restoring Our Presidents With Forever Studios: Andrew Jackson

Have an interest in history, the arts, politics or photography? Then you are in the right place. Welcome to “Restoring The American Presidents”, a new blog series from Forever Studios, showcasing the amazing blend of art and science that goes into the work of performing historical image restoration and colorization.

Our Historical Team, in conjunction with our Restoration Studio, will take you on an entertaining and informative walk through both the process of working on the restoration in question, as well as diving into a number of interesting facts about the presidents and their administrations. Hopefully we’ll have the opportunity to teach you a thing or two about both history and the arts. So without further ado, let’s dive into our first subject of the series, President Andrew Jackson.

Restoring The American Presidents With Forever Studios: Andrew Jackson.

Talking about “Old Hickory” always seems to be a contentious affair. The man behind the Jacksonian Democrat movement has always been a very high profile figure, even long after his death, and it’s fair to say that there have been few presidents who have split public opinion more radically than him.

If you ever find yourself in Tennessee, The Hermitage is a must visit location.

Depending on who you ask, Jackson was either one of the most important presidents the country has ever had (in terms of setting the course for our modern form of American government), or the worst president that ever lived. There really aren’t many people that have a moderate opinion on the subject, even among historians and presidential scholars.

Of course, as you may expect, this is where I tell you that I personally think Andrew Jackson is deserving of a nuanced and balanced view; and that there are honestly a number of aspects of his time in office that shouldn’t be seen as strictly positive or negative.

But first thing’s first. Not everyone reading this article is going to be a Presidential scholar, so for those not in the know, what are the basics on Andrew Jackson?

Here’s a summary from one of our other historians on staff, Heather Fiveson:

Staff Historian and Genealogical expert Heather Fiveson.

Heather’s Basic Overview of President Andrew Jackson.

Andrew Jackson, "Old Hickory," was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. As a member of the Democratic Party, he was renowned for his staunch advocacy of individual freedoms and unwavering belief in a limited federal government. Prior to his presidency, Andrew Jackson was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman. In the War of 1812, he served as a major general who became a national hero by defeating the British at New Orleans. In honor of his service to the United States, he is the face of the $20 bill.

AN EXTREMELY COMPLICATED MAN WITH NO SIMPLE DESCRIPTION.

Thanks, Heather. But what that summary doesn’t talk about is, well, all of the “over the top” and incredibly impactful things that Jackson was responsible for. It is almost impossible to talk about Jackson without a significant amount of hyperbole, because he was frankly a larger than life figure.

The Portrait of Jackson We Chose to Restore & Colorize.

But first, let’s take a look at the classic portrait of Old Hickory, and the restoration and colorizing work done by our Lead Artist Olivia.

A black and white portrait of Andrew Jackson with a pretty significant amount of age. The digital file is only so-so as well.

Chances are, if you have seen any portrait of Andrew Jackson, it’s this one. And that’s the reason why we picked it to demonstrate our capabilities for creating lifelike images with our old photo restoration and photo colorization services. The goal for Olivia here was to take this classic image of Jackson, and attempt to make it look as close to a historical photo as possible. While Daguerreotype photos of a very old Jackson do exist, we felt this was a better example of how the restoration process works.

WHO WAS THE ORIGINAL PAINTER OF THIS FAMOUS ANDREW JACKSON PORTRAIT?

The original work of Andrew Jackson was painted by the English (and later American) artist Thomas Sully. To be fair, Sully deserves an article of his own. Having been born in England in 1783, and emigrating with his family to the United States in 1792, Sully’s life reflected a tumultuous experience that was not at all uncommon for new Americans seeking their fortune in the states. He bounced around from state to state in his youth, involved in all manner of arts, before eventually finding the right patrons and audience in the first decade of the 1800s.

This famous portrait of Jackson was completed by Sully in 1845, and has since become the preeminent portrait of the president.

Explaining the Forever Studios Photo Restoration Process.

When it comes to the process of photo and portrait restoration, Olivia has her own process which eventually became the process that all artists at Forever Studios use. The first order of business is listing out all of the major flaws in the image that need to be addressed before any detailed work is done. This will include any significant damage, distortion, fading, or degradation of the image.

Olivia, the main “miracle worker” of our Photo Restoration Studio.

Once this list of major problem areas is determined, it’s time to build a plan of attack for those major flaws. Restoration artists at Forever Studios have a number of different tools and talents at their disposal, and part of what makes for an exceptional restoration artist is knowing which of those tools and talents to use for each different flaw or feature that needs to be addressed. So each of the major flaws receives its own specific solution for how it will be fixed.

HOW MUCH OF THE PROCESS OF PHOTO RESTORATION IS AI THESE DAYS?

The general gist of the common approaches is that there will be some combination of Photoshop and AI reconstruction. While AI can do a fine job of filling in the gaps these days, making it look realistic still involves a lot of hand-editing after the fact. Sometimes it’s actually easier to look for references in other photos when it comes to materials, textures, and major features. You might be surprised to learn that elements from completely different photos commonly have to be composited into the photo that’s being worked on. When blended properly, it’s almost impossible to tell.

In the case of this portrait of Andrew Jackson, there isn’t any major damage that needs to be addressed, but the source image has plenty of room for improvement. We purposely chose a digital version of this portrait that wasn’t perfect. The resolution isn’t particularly fantastic, and neither is the overall level of detail. Making it look anywhere near photo-realistic means nailing the details. And if you look at the results achieved by Olivia, it’s fair to say that she made that happen.

The Restored and Colorized Result of President Andrew Jackson..

President Jackson is looking far better (and rather lifelike) after spending some time with Olivia in the Restoration Studio. Wow.

WHAT IS THE UNCANNY VALLEY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Working on the details of an image is in many ways more difficult than fixing the major damage, because the details tend to determine whether or not a photo restoration falls into what we like to call the “Uncanny Valley”. The Uncanny Valley is a term to describe the fine line where something appears photo realistic, but has just enough wrong with it where your brain ends up confused. And in the case of photo restoration and art restoration, it’s very common for so-so work to land right on that mark.

How Are Small Details Handled in Historical Photo Restoration?

The details to note here, are the amount of work that was done to skin tone, shadows, skin texture, and hair texture. Generally these aspects are the most difficult to properly address in a photo restoration, and colorization project. First off, the artist has to have a lot of talent in visualization of what an image is supposed to look like. In many cases, that’s something that just can’t be taught. It involves a completely intuitive understanding of lighting, and how lighting affects different materials.

Getting up close and personal is the only way to get the job done the right way.

To really nail these details, the artist has to get very up close and personal with the image, using photoshop to zoom far into the image, and using their hand artistry skills to micro-detail the finer aspects of the job. Individual pores, strands of hair, even facial hair, all have to be meticulously adjusted or added by the artist. Looking at the original image here versus the completed product, you can get a sense of the huge amount of detail work that Olivia put into the job.

Click the slider to see the details of the original vs the colorized version.

Getting Back Into What Makes Andrew Jackson One of the Most Important Presidents in American History.

Now that we’ve gotten a good look at Andrew here, let’s chat a bit about his real role in American history. If you have any friends who are historians, you may have heard them compare Donald Trump to Andrew Jackson, and that’s for good reason. When it comes to revolutionary populists with hyper-dedicated political adherents, Jackson really can’t be rivaled. The Jacksonian Democrats, who happen to be the actual genesis of today’s Democratic party, were complete political outsiders at first. But it was their extreme love for Jackson, and his populist messaging, that propelled him to the presidency.

Jackson literally opened the White House to any supporters who wanted to show up after being elected, and the stories surrounding the event are incredible. Reportedly, the place was trashed, and Jackson had to escape out a window. Sounds a little familiar, no? 

And much like the MAGA movement of today, the Jacksonian Democrats were considered political undesirables by everyone in the traditional political power structures. As a result the Democratic-Republican party, which dated all the way back to the age of the Founding Fathers, was split apart, with the “establishment” Democrats forming what would later become the Whig party. If you’re curious about today’s modern Republican party, you’ll have to wait until a few decades later, in the run up to the American Civil War.

The Personal Demeanor and Governing Style of Andrew Jackson.

No matter what Jackson set his sights on, he effectively went to war with it. And his solutions to those issues were a mixed bag of big-power politics that modern people tend to either strongly agree with, or very strongly oppose. The three main issues of Jackson’s presidency had to do with expansion of voting rights, breaking up the power of large banking institutions, and what was commonly referred to then as “the Indian Problem”. 

As president, Jackson depended heavily on the willingness of his political movement to place pressure (of any sort) on the greater system to support his executive decisions.

If you think that modern leftists and far-right activists are extreme in their behavior, some contingents of the Jacksonian Democrats make them look like schoolkids by comparison. And in this current age of people questioning whether or not our form of government is safe from the will of an outsider political contingent, it may be reassuring to know that the same arguments were levied against the Jacksonians, during a far more turbulent time in our political history.

The comparisons have been made by many publications over recent years, with the opinions on the subject being, well, contentious.

Though plenty of complaints were levied against Jacksonian Democrats that they were effectively tearing down our sacred system of government, it wasn’t until the issue of slavery in expansion states became impossible to solve that we actually found ourselves in a situation where civil war became a reality.

THE DUALITY OF ANDREW JACKSON.

While Jackson was a huge proponent of individual rights and privileges, and expanded the vote beyond the landed gentry, his idea of individualism also included pistol duels with over 100 opponents during his lifetime. And while he quite successfully waged a huge war on large and powerful banking systems within the United States, he was also the creator of the “Spoils System”, by which supporters and cronies were placed in all areas of power within any area of government Jackson could control.

The Famous (or infamous) pistol duel between Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson.

Perhaps most self-contradictory, Jackson would loudly proclaim that the federal government was the enemy of a citizen’s right to self-determination, while also doing everything in his power to personally expand the role of the president within American life.

JACKSON AND THE TRAIL OF TEARS.

The Jacksonian policy which is met with the loudest condemnation by modern Americans is what has come to be known as the Trail of Tears. This forcible relocation of the native Americans to western territories did untold damage to all tribes involved, and is commonly thought of as a black mark on American history. And make no mistake, it was almost unilaterally Jackson’s idea.

This almost inevitably leads to questions of racism when it comes to Jackson’s personal character, but what most people aren’t aware of, is the fact that Jackson actually had adopted an orphan Native American toddler as his own son. And when reading into the reasons for the “Trail of Tears”, Jackson may have actually been attempting to remove Native Americans to lands where they would not find themselves at odds with white American society, and furthermore in combat with them. As a veteran of multiple wars, and an orphan himself, it could be argued that Jackson believed he was doing the right thing. But as it is often said, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”.

Looking at American Presidents as Ordinary People.

One of the cool side benefits of this article series, is that hopefully by making the presidents we cover look like the images we’re all used to these days, that perhaps it can make it a little more obvious that our leaders throughout history really were just people like you or I. We tend to mythologize historical figures, and elevate their thoughts and actions to this higher place of significance that almost makes them feel like fictional characters.

Believe it or not, all American Presidents are human.

But as any of us are aware, people are complicated, and so are large organizations like our government. And by combining complicated people with complicated systems, outcomes aren’t always reflective of someone's ideals as they read on paper.

PRESERVING YOUR HISTORY WITH FOREVER STUDIOS PHOTO RESTORATION.

Of course, if you find that you have your own historical photos that are important to you or your family history, then our services are only a few clicks away! Olivia, our Head Artist who worked on Old Hickory’s portrait here actually works on our customer orders as well. You can have her work directly on your damaged old photo.

Olivia, head of Forever Studios Old Photo Restoration.

We have a saying here at Forever Studios that the art of preserving history isn't just reserved for notable or popular figures. We each have our own history that’s important to us, and it’s our collective histories which come together to create the great story of our American lives. We look forward to working with you on yours, and seeing you back here for our next article in this series.

Which one of our presidents are next? Ever heard of William Henry Harrison? If not, I don’t blame you. He was actually president for exactly one month. Make sure to tune back in for the comedy of errors that was the Harrison presidency.