Man in Yellow Chair

Unidentified · ca. 1820

In the early nineteenth century, prosperous Americans along the eastern seaboard hired traveling artists to create their portraits in a forthright style made popular in colonial times by itinerant limners. This portrait of an unidentified gentleman follows that style, with strong lines that suggest, but don’t realistically replicate, the man’s features and the details of his costume. Most clients for such portraits lived outside the major urban centers of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, and it is likely that this gentleman was a plantation owner of some means.