CC0 · no rights reserved
James Buchanan
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
When Henry Dexter set out to create his portrait gallery of the fifteenth U.S. president and all the governors, he began at the White House. Buchanan expressed surprise that a Massachusetts artist would want to sculpt him, since he was unpopular there. The artist reportedly said, “We have some crazy heads,” to which Buchanan replied, “All are.” Buchanan sat for Dexter in a room in the White House daily, and the president treated the ambitious artist with “great cordiality.” This bust was in the collection of Buchanan’s beloved niece and adopted daughter Harriet Lane Johnston at the time of her death.
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineJames Buchanan. modeled ca. 1859. Henry Dexter, born Nelson, NY 1806-died Cambridge, MA 1876. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum acquisition. CC0.
