This portrait of General the Marquis de Lafayette by an unknown American Artist hangs in the Museum of the Historical Society of Maryland in Baltimore.
"When Lafayette returned to America in 1824 he had with him a number of portraits. He gave a silhouette to Jefferson, a bust to President Monroe; and he had many engravings by Jean-Marie Leroux after his favorite portrait by Ary Scheffer. Scheffer, a Dutchman who shared Lafayette's politics, began that portrait in 1818 and finished in 1819. His painting abandoned the ostentatious conventions of contemporary large-scale portraits of eminent men, instead showing Lafayette in civilian clothes in a moody setting reflective of romantic art of the time. The painting was immensely popular; its lack of pretension well suited the republican leader. Scheffer produced two additional copies: one for Lafayette himself, the other eventually went to the U.S. Capitol." -- Maryland Historical Society
This 1873 engraving after a painting by Alonso Chappel appears in Duyckinck's Portrait Gallery,
The artist is not unknown; it's Ary Scheffer.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. I didn't know that in 2016!
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