From the Canvas to the Courtroom: Discovering Artistic Collections in Legal Locations

July 13, 2025

Credit: Pieter Brueghel the Younger, The Peasant Lawyer, 1620. Tempera on panel, 28 x 41 in; 71 x 104 cm

By Parsa Zaheri

While the intersections between the arts and the legal field can often seem nebulous or obscure, there is perhaps no clearer expression of the close relationship between art and the law than the art collections that are often found within legal institutions. Whether it be artistic collections in state and federal courts or art galleries in law schools, art finds its way into legal areas in fascinating ways that help illuminate the interplay between Kunstwollen or “the will to art,” as defined by art historian Aloïs Riegl, and the right to art. An analysis of the art of legal courts and schools not only reveals information about judicial philosophies or the common law system, but art found in these areas also express a great deal of artistic merit, innovative artistic techniques, and serve as a stimulus for introspection. This article will analyze the art within both Harvard Law School and the Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States as case studies to discuss how the art inside such institutions interacts with the legal spaces around them.

Artwork in New York Law School

In the year 2022, the Center for Art Law held its annual Conference at the New York Law School (NYLS) and in conjunction with NYLS, the two put together a list of artworks on display around the school. The Conference brought to light New York Law School’s robust art collection, which has a special emphasis on paintings by Keith Haring and lithographs by Emilio Sanchez. One work from the NYLS art collection that exemplifies the overall trends of the works includes Haring’s silkscreen print Statue of Liberty. Haring’s silkscreen depicts Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s 1886 sculpture of Liberty Enlightening the World, which has come to be colloquially known as the Statue of Liberty. Lady Liberty has come to be an integral part of the culture of New York and aligns with New York Law School’s location in the Big Apple. Underneath the colossal statue, a group of three yellow figures can be seen swaying with their hands in the air, as indicated by the chevrons radiating from their arms. The group of figures can either be interpreted as dancing, throwing their arms in the air in a rallying cry, or engaging in any other action that involves moving one’s arms through the air. The lack of facial features on the countenance of the yellow figures in the foreground obscures their expressions and creates an atmosphere of ambiguity to their movements, making it so the movements can either be interpreted in various ways. The same can be said about Keith’s depiction of Lady Liberty herself who appears to have one eye open and one eye slightly closed. The closed eye of Lady Liberty, as well as her downturned mouth, make it appear as if she is wincing in pain. Haring’s work utilizes Lady Liberty’s universal association with justice, freedom, and liberty to highlight the breaches and violations of justice in society. This idea of addressing the violations of justice aligns with both the aim of New York Law School, as well as the broader concept of American law, an adversarial legal system that seeks to redress wrongs and uphold a greater sense of justice in society. Haring’s work addresses the complexities of justice, the American legal system, and New York culture through subtle adjustments to the symbol of Lady Liberty and framing devices, such as positioning the statue around three moving figures in the foreground.

Harvard Law School’s Visual Art Collection

The art in the collection of Harvard Law School also includes a great variety of disparate art objects, including manuscript paintings, photographs, portraits, lithographs, and numerous other artistic mediums. The visual art collection of Harvard Law School has been reasonably well digitized in the institution’s archives. One of the highlights from the Harvard Law School’s collection that encapsulates the breadth of the institution’s artistic collection includes the visual materials pertaining to Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter. In terms of Harvard Law School’s collection on Justice Frankfurter, one can find photos of Frankfurter from various points throughout his life, photos of Frankfurter’s family, and a few select photographs of events in which Frankfurter was in attendance. Not all of the items in Harvard’s Collection has a digitized file accessible for public viewing, but a few particular photographs that best encapsulate the oeuvre of the Harvard Collection include the photograph of “Felix Frankfurter in his boarding house room” from 1905, as well as the 1963 photograph of “Felix Frankfurter teaching.” In terms of the former photograph of “Felix Frankfurter in his boarding house room,” one can see Justice Frankfurter living in his housing accommodations while studying at Harvard Law School. As indicated by the notes on the photograph, the Justice can be shown staying at 1707 Cambridge Street, his residence during his three years studying at Harvard Law School. The 1707 Cambridge Street home in Cambridge, Massachusetts has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since the 1980s and dates back to 1845, which would date the home at about 60 years old when Frankfurter resided in the home. The interior of the home is well-furnished with family photographs at the left, a flat plate of Harvard University with its coat of arms of three opened tomes, a bookshelf stacked with books, and an armchair decorated with what appears to be botanical motifs on its surface. Frankfurter himself stares directly at the viewer with his legs crossed with a slightly upturned mouth and subtly raised left eyebrow, suggesting a countenance of introspection fitting for the law school.

(Credit: Published in: Harvard Law School Bulletin. Cambridge, Mass. : The School, v. 14, no. 5 (Apr. 1963): 3 and v.46, no. 1 (Fall 1994): 18)

The next photograph from Harvard Law School’s collection depicts Justice Frankfurter as a Professor at Harvard Law School teaching a group of six men at a table. Professor Frankfurter stands akimbo and, once again, stares directly out at the viewer, concentrating the focus of the photograph on the Professor. Directly above Frankfurter lies a portrait of the fourth Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall. The framing of the photograph with Frankfurter directly underneath Justice John Marshall draws a visual connection between Frankfurter and one of the most esteemed Justices of the history of the Supreme Court, John Marshall. Like Marshall, Justice Frankfurter often wrote notable majority opinions which were groundbreaking in establishing lasting precedents in the history of case law. For example, Justice Frankfurter’s majority opinion in Colegrove v. Green in 1946 set the precedent that “political nature of apportionment precluded judicial intervention,” mirroring recent Supreme Court decisions, such as Rucho v. Common Cause, which mirrors Frankfurter’s majority opinion and the idea that partisan gerrymandering is not justiciable by the federal courts. Likewise, Chief Justice Marshall’s opinions also established lasting precedents on the Supreme Court in cases such as Marbury v. Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland, and Cohens v. Virginia. Overall, like the influential 20th century photographs of Alfred Stieglitz that reflected a sense of artistic expression, the photos of Justice Frankfurter from various points of his life capture the evolution of his life through the medium of photography through the framing and composition of the photograph.

The Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

Likewise, the Supreme Court of the United States also contains a great deal of art within its collection spanning portraits of former Supreme Court Associate and Chief Justices to depictions of historical legal scholars throughout the history of the law. This article will emphasize the unique artistry of the portraits of two Supreme Court Justices, as well as performing a formal and iconographic analysis of the Courtroom Frieze of the Supreme Court Building.

One portrait of a former Associate Justice that encapsulates the way in which portraiture can reflect the identity and judicial philosophy of arbiters of the law would be Nelson Shanks’ portrait of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. Nelson Shanks’ oeuvre centers around naturalistic portraits of eminent figures from the 20th century, including portraits of President Bill Clinton, President Reagan, and Princess Diana of Wales. Shanks was also a prominent art collector, and in January 2022, Sotheby’s assembled a collection of Shanks’ work for an exhibition. Shanks’ portrait of Justice Scalia features numerous small vignettes that allude to Scalia’s life. For instance, resting at the edge of the desk at the left of the painting, one can see an homage to Hans Holbein the Younger’s 1527 work of Sir Thomas More, which is currently housed within the Frick Collection in New York. Sir Thomas More served as Lord High Chancellor to King Henry VIII and wrote a series of political treatises, among his most famous being Utopia, a discourse about an idyllic society that led to the development of the word “utopia” in the common English vernacular. Saint Thomas More is also venerated as the patron saint of jurists and lawyers, which reflects Scalia’s faith and commitment to the Constitution. Hans Holbein’s portrait of Thomas More depicts More with a golden S-chain, which alludes to the motto of “Think of me often,”^[1] and Scalia seems to have embodied this motto throughout his lifetime. In an article from the Harvard Law Review, Chief Justice Roberts discusses that Justice Scalia “admired Thomas More” and “requested that the artist include More’s image within the frame.”^[2] In this sense, the allusion to Hans Holbein’s portrait of Thomas More reflects a great deal about Scalia as a person and his dedication to both moral and judicial law.

As opposed to Nelson Shanks’ portrait of Justice Scalia that reflects Scalia’s identity as a person and judge, Gardener Cox’s portrait of Justice Felix Frankfurter offers an intriguing artistic portrayal of the judge with rapid gestural brush strokes against an abstract pictorial field. Justice Frankfurter was appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and was born in Austria, making him one of the six Justices who was not born in the United States. Justice Frankfurter served on the Bench during the mid 20th century during the same period that abstract expressionism dominated the American artistic landscape. Gardener Cox’s portrait recalls the visible brushstrokes seen in Willem de Kooning’s Woman I, which also features a discernible figure against an abstract field. This creation of a metaphysical space lying in between abstraction and naturalism is seen in Frankfurter’s portrait as well, which stands at a stark contrast to most of the other portraits of Supreme Court Justices, which portrait the Justices within an identifiable backdrop. Overall, while Cox’s portrait of Frankfurter does not reveal much about his judicial career, the work reflects the artistic zeitgeist of abstract expressionism and echoes the painting style of prominent abstract expressionists of the time period.

A final reflection about the appearances of the arts in legal institutions leads to the North and South Courtroom Frieze of the Supreme Court, which features historical jurists and lawgivers from King Menes of Ancient Egypt to Napoleon of France. The idea of a frieze of sculpted figurative harkens back to a common feature of the Ionic Temples of Ancient Greece, which often featured Ionic friezes as opposed to the triglyphs and metopes often found in Doric Temples. The Courtroom Frieze unites jurists specializing in common law and civil law, as well as bringing together those who interpret the law with historical legislators who introduced the law. The unifying thread of the Courtroom Frieze situates Supreme Court Justices, and in fact, all adjudicators of the law into a timeless procession of legal scholars, a tradition that spans from the beginning of civilization and has continued through every people of every place.

About the Author:

My name is Parsa Zaheri, and I’m currently studying Political Science, as well as the History of Art and Architecture at Brown University. I am especially interested in exploring the interaction between the two disciplines within the subjects of human heritage, cultural assets, and intellectual property. I’m also personally interested in both the arts and jurisprudence, and I enjoy listening to political podcasts or monitoring art transactions at the art markets of Christie’s or Sotheby’s.

Select Sources:

1. “Hans Holbein, the Younger, ‘Sir Thomas More.’” The Frick Collection, August 2010. https://www.frick.org/interact/hans_holbein_younger_sir_thomas_more. ↑
2. Manning, John F., Cass R. Sunstein, Rachel E. Barkow, Martha Minow, Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and John G. Roberts. “Justice Antonin Scalia.” Harvard Law Review, March 24, 2023. https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-130/in-memoriam-justice-antonin-scalia/. ↑