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Portrait of a Gentleman
ca. 1840
- Medium
- watercolor on ivory
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- sight 2 1/4 x 1 3/4 in. (5.7 x 4.4 cm) oval
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Mrs. Henry L. Milmore through Mr. Henry L. Milmore
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
In the first decades of the nineteenth century, Roman artworks became fashionable among Americans. Men like this sitter imitated the short, combed-over hairstyles of ancient portrait busts. Beards, however, did not become widely accepted until the 1840s. Joseph Palmer, of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, wore a beard in 1830 and was publicly criticized for what was then considered a violation of propriety. His church refused him Communion, and four men even attacked him to try and shave off the beard in the interests of “morality.” By 1845, beards were seen as a mark of masculinity.
