Howard Koslow (American, 1924 - 2016) "Mt. Rushmore and U.S. Flag" Signed lower left. Original Acrylic on Illustration Board painting. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting was originally published on the Fleetwood First Day Cover for the U.S. 29c Flag Over Mt. Rushmore stamp issued July 4, 1991. An old Black Hills rancher once peered out across a verdant meadow to the stately, dark pines rising in the distance behind his house and declared, "If God created Heaven after Earth, He did His practicin' right here in South Dakota." Sacred to the Sioux, coveted by the gold-seeking prospector, and beloved by people all across the nation, the Black Hills of South Dakota are indescribably beautiful. It was here, amid the pine-timbered slopes and jumbled hills of the purest granite that artist Gutzon Borglum envisioned a great monument to America. His "Shrine of Democracy" became his obsession, a quest which would consume the final years of his life and one which he would never see to completion. Today, Mount Rushmore rises above the dark pines as testimony to one man's desire and symbol of national pride. On Independence Day 1991, fifty years since work on the massive memorial ceased, Mount Rushmore was officially dedicated -- for the first time. A crowd of some thirty thousand people watched as the first rays of sunshine bathed the mountains, touching the stony cheeks of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln with the blush of morning. Image Size: 14 x 12 in. Overall Size: 20 x 17.75 in. Unframed. (B13001)