Daniel Webster
Medium
Drawing
Classification
Drawing
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; given in memory of Gertrude T. Longacre by Mark B. Thompson
Accession Number
NPG.2015.128
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1833, engraver and portraitist James Barton Longacre (1794–1869) captured the commanding presence of Daniel Webster in this striking drawing, now housed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's National Portrait Gallery. Longacre, renowned for his precise likenesses that later graced U.S. coins and banknotes as Chief Engraver of the Mint, employed graphite or ink on paper to convey Webster's intellectual vigor and statesmanlike gravitas. This preparatory-style work exemplifies early 19th-century American portraiture, where drawings served as studies for engravings that disseminated prominen...