George Reynolds
Medium
pen and brown-black ink over graphite
Dimensions
sheet: 17.6 × 12.6 cm (6 15/16 × 4 15/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
John Davis Hatch Collection
Accession Number
1979.20.115
Art Historical Context
In the National Gallery of Art John Davis Hatch Collection resides a delicate portrait drawing titled *George Reynolds*, created in 1859 by John Quincy Ward, one of America's foremost sculptors of the 19th century. Ward, a key figure in the American Renaissance was renowned for his realistic public monuments like the *Indian Hunter* and *Henry Ward Beecher*, blending classical ideals with everyday American vitality. This intimate sheet, measuring just 17.6 × 12.6 cm, captures the sitter in profile, showcasing Ward's early mastery of portraiture during his formative years in New York. Executed...
About the Artist
John Quincy Adams Ward · 1830–1910
John Quincy Adams Ward (1830–1910) was born in Urbana, Ohio, the fourth of eight children, and displayed an early aptitude for three-dimensional form, modeling figures in clay from childhood. In 1849 he moved to Brooklyn, New York, to apprentice under the sculptor Henry Kirke Brown, with whom he worked for seven years. Brown's emphasis on American subjects and his conviction that sculpture should ...