Pictures of John Wayne are most often seen in the context of reproductions of movie posters and photographs.  Other pictures of John Wayne are often amateur sketches  or commercial-art type head studies which can be readily seen at any local crafts fair.  It is rare when a serious artist such as Elena Roché embraces this popular subject in a classical manner, elevating a portrait of John Wayne to high art.  More often these pictures of John Wayne are mere caricatures that debase the career of the man and the message of his films.

     Of course we must separate the man from the roles that he played, never confusing what an actor "acts" with what he "does".  At the same time we must note that there was a theme in the films of John Wayne that spoke to the ideals and yearnings of the man and there was a life where he struggled to realize those ideals and yearnings.  Thus, Elena Roché presents a portrait, the theme taken from a movie role, which manages to capture the man and the myth in a work of art that fulfills our highest expectations of the many and varied pictures of John Wayne.