Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Accession Number
S/NPG.74.39.15.13
Tags
Art Historical Context
This 1809 print by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin captures a formal male portrait titled simply “Knox.” Saint-Mémin, a French émigré who fled the Revolution and settled in the United States, became one of the most sought-after portraitists of the early republic. Working primarily in Philadelphia and other East Coast cities, he documented a generation of military officers, statesmen, and prominent citizens whose likenesses now form an important visual record of the young nation. Saint-Mémin specialized in profile portraits produced with a physiognotrace, a mechanical device tha...