Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Accession Number
NPG.80.128.L
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Home** (1868) by Adalbert John Volck captures a whimsical portrait of Benjamin Franklin Butler the prominent Massachusetts lawyer, Union general, and future presidential known for his yachtsman pursuits. Rendered as a print in the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection, this work places Butler in an idyllic exterior setting, surrounded by a hat, flute, goat, lamb, and tree—elements evoking a serene, pastoral "home" that contrasts with his stormy public life during and after the Civil War. ck, a 19th-century artist skilled in printmaking, likely used this medium to blend portraiture with...