# Member of the Yates Family

- By: Unidentified
- Date: ca. 1780
- Medium: watercolor on ivory
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: sight 1 5/8 x 1 3/8 in. (4.1 x 3.5 cm) oval
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=25457)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/0ac916a36e6e99ff264942d470a9ab30.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Mr. Yates’s hair, with its two curls above each ear, reflects the style of the late eighteenth century when men made the transition from wigs to their own, often powdered, hair. The sitter’s elongated nose, thin lips, sad eyes, and weak jawline give him a feeble appearance, and he may have chosen to wear a vibrantly colored coat in his portrait to compensate for these timid features.