Portrait of a Young Man
1749–52
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
133.4 × 107.6 cm (52 1/2 × 42 3/8 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
79768
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
An established portrait painter in England, John Wollaston came to the American colonies to ply his trade in 1749. For the next three years, Wollaston worked in New York, executing numerous portraits for area sitters eager to acquire quality likenesses from a skilled, European-trained artist—a rarity in mid-18th-century America. Wollaston rendered his figures with convincing modeling and forms, excelling in the depiction of colorful draperies. In Portrait of a Young Man, as in his other works of...
About the Artist
John Wollaston · 1700–1800
John Wollaston (active c. 1710–1775) was an English portrait painter who brought sophisticated Rococo styles from London to the British North American colonies, becoming one of the most prolific artists in the region during the mid-18th century. Little is known of his early life beyond his likely birth in London as the son of a painter—possibly named John Wollaston or John Woolston, according to H...