Joseph Ritner
Date unknown
Medium
Etching on paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 22.6 × 14.2 cm (8 15/16 × 5 5/8 in.)
Classification
reproduction
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
274290
Art Historical Context
This etching, titled *Joseph Ritner*, is finely executed reproduction portrait of the 19th-century American politician who served as Pennsylvania's 10th governor from 1829 to 1835. Produced by an unknown artist on a modest sheet measuring 22.6 × 14.2 cm, it captures Ritner's likeness in a style typical of period printmaking, emphasizing his role as a prominent Anti-Masonic Party leader and advocate for workers' rights during the early industrial era. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings department, the work exemplifies how etchings democratized access to images of publi...