"A portrait is a picture in which there is just a tiny little something not quite right about the mouth." -- John Singer Sargent

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

David Glasgow Farragut



This 1838 portrait of David Glasgow Farragut hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.
 "President Abraham Lincoln considered the appointment of David Glasgow Farragut as commander of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron the best one he made during the Civil War. Sailing in the flag­ship USS Hartford on April 24, 1862, Farragut led his fleet of seventeen vessels in a successful run by the Confederate defenses, engaged and defeated the enemy flotilla, and captured New Orleans. Rear Admiral Farragut spent the next two years blockading the Gulf Coast and maintaining Union control over the lower Mississippi before preparing for the capture of the Mobile Bay defenses in August 1864. By month's end, Farragut's fleet had forced the Confederate surrender. This, the major victory of Farragut's naval career, earned him the rank of vice admiral. Two years later, in declining health, he was commissioned  admiral.

This portrait was painted early in Farragut's naval career, when he was a lieutenant." -- National Portrait Gallery
An engraving apparently of this painting entitled "D.G. Farragut Lieut. Comandg age 37" appeared in The Life of David Glasgow Farragut First Admiral of the United States Navy, 1879 by Loyall Farragut, the Admiral's son.


 Further along in the same book we find this more mature portrait of Admiral Farragut signed
"Your Devoted Father, D.G. Farragut."


Another portrait of Farragut appears on this series 1891 $100 U.S. Treasury note. 




A similar image of the Admiral appeared on a 1903 $1 postage stamp.


And here he is on a 1995 32¢ stamp.



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