Henry Morton Stanley

Art Historical Context

This striking portrait drawing of Henry Morton Stanley, created 1890 by Jacques Reich (2–1923), the famed explorer in a moment of poised intensity. Reich, a Hungarian-American artist renowned for his meticulous graphite and chalk drawings of prominent figures, renders Stanley with a commanding mustache, neatly tied necktie, and a newspaper in hand— of his dual identity as adventurer and journalist. Housed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and credited to the National Portrait Gallery this work exemplifies 19th-century portraiture emphasis on character through subtle details. Stanley, bor...