Portrait of a Fashionable Gentleman
American, circa 1820
Oil on canvas, 36 x 28 inches, in gilt frame, 43 ½ x 35

Some portraits announce rank, profession, or accomplishment. This guy seems content simply to make an entrance. Fashionably dressed in a black coat and white waistcoat, with a wonderfully exuberant silk bow at his neck, he leans casually against the back of his chair with an ease that feels strikingly modern.

The painter clearly understood that posture can tell us as much as costume. One arm falls loosely over the chair while the sitter turns toward us with an informality that makes us wonder something about the man himself. Was this how he wanted to be seen—or simply how the artist saw him?

We may never know his name. Looking at him, now, it hardly seems to matter. Charm needs no introduction.

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