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Portrait of a Gentleman with Initials C. B.
ca. 1795
- Medium
- watercolor on ivory
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- sight 2 1/8 x 2 5/8 in. (5.4 x 6.7 cm) oval
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Rene Muller
- 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
Although this miniature gives the sitter’s initials as “CB,” the man’s identity is unknown. His clothes and posture, however, imply that he was a gentleman who knew the importance of dress at the end of the eighteenth century. The artist elongated the man’s torso and head to call attention to his collar, the blue and red striped shirt, and the ruffles of his white cravat. With his shoulders pressed back and his head held high, this man asserts that he is nothing less than a gentleman prepared for the new century.
