CC0 · no rights reserved
Man with Gold Pencil
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Sturtevant Hamblin and William Matthew Prior charged their patrons higher prices for their portraits according to the amount of shading and detail they requested. The artists would have charged a high price for this portrait, since they included the pleats in the gentleman’s shirt and the shadows around the cleft of his chin. The gold pencil, which he wears around his neck, marks this sitter as a man of letters.
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionCredit lineMan with Gold Pencil. ca. 1850. Prior-Hamblen School, n.d.. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson. CC0.
