Man with a Pen
Jonas Welch Holman
1827–30
Medium
Oil on yellow poplar panel
Dimensions
70.8 × 54.6 cm (27 7/8 × 21 1/2 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
120103
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Jonas Holman worked as a portrait painter, writer, doctor, and preacher, supporting himself through these vocations as he traveled among Baptist congregations. By 1827 he had made his way to Philadelphia where he painted seven known portraits, among them Woman with a Book and Man with a Pen. In these works Holman substituted a brilliant, tasseled curtain for a plain background. He showed his sitters in painted "fancy" chairs, with broad, Greek Revival crest rails, similar to painted furniture ma...