Hamilton Fish
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; transfer from the Library of Congress
Accession Number
NPG.66.81
Tags
Art Historical Context
This 1844 print by Charles Fenderich captures Hamilton Fish, a New York lawyer whose distinguished career would later include service as governor, U.S. senator, and Secretary of State. Created when Fish was in his mid-thirties, the portrait presents him as a rising public figure, complete with the facial hair that marked many gentlemen of the era. As a work now held in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, it offers visitors a glimpse into the visual culture surrounding American leadership in the mid-nineteenth century. Fenderich, active in the United States during a period of rapid po...