Henry David Thoreau
Unidentified Artist
c. 1863
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Accession Number
NPG.2020.174
Tags
BowtieWriterDiaristEssayistPoetHenry David Thoreau: MaleTranscendentalistNaturalistPortraitPrint
About this artwork
Henry David Thoreauâs classic book Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854) helped establish the nature writing tradition in the United States and had a lasting impact on environmental thought. Influenced by transcendentalist ideas of self-reliance and spiritual communion with nature, Thoreau retreated to land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson on Walden Pond from 1845 to 1847. âI went to the woods,â he wrote, âbecause I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and s...