CC0 · no rights reserved
Portrait of a Gentleman
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This miniature shows the forceful, confident figure of a nineteenth-century businessman. During the 1850s, such men wore dark clothes to indicate their professionalism and sobriety. This sitter’s low collar and smaller necktie mark the shift from earlier high collars and elaborate cravats that identified men of wealth and leisure.
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit linePortrait of a Gentleman. ca. 1850. Unidentified. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund. CC0.
