Orestes Brownson
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Accession Number
NPG.79.207
Tags
About this artwork
Helena W. Odierne, Toledo; purchased 1979 NPG
Art Historical Context
George Peter Alexander Healy's 1863 portrait *Orestes Brownson captures the likeness of one of 19th-century America's most provocative intellectuals. Brownson, a philosopher, writer, minister, former Transcendentalist who later converted to Catholicism, sits thoughtfully in an interior setting, surrounded by symbols of his scholarly life: eyeglasses, a book a journal, and draped fabrics on a chair. Painted during the height of the Civil War, the work reflects Healy's mastery of realistic portraiture, a style that brought historical figures to vivid life for posterity. Healy, a prolific portra...