William Henry Harrison
Medium
mezzotint and engraving in black on wove paper mounted to brown wove paper
Dimensions
image (irregular): 5.56 × 5.56 cm (2 3/16 × 2 3/16 in.) sheet (trimmed to plate): 6.67 × 6.19 cm (2 5/8 × 2 7/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of William Wilson Corcoran)
Accession Number
2015.19.1584.15.4
Art Historical Context
This intimate 1800 portrait captures William Henry Harrison early in his public life, before he became the ninth president of the United States. Created by French émigré artist Charles B. J. Févret de Saint-Mémin, the small print reflects the era’s growing demand for affordable likenesses of emerging American leaders. Harrison, then serving as governor of the Indiana Territory, appears at a pivotal moment in the young nation’s westward expansion. Saint-Mémin specialized in precise profile portraits produced with the physiognotrace, a mechanical drawing device that traced silhouettes before th...
About the Artist
Charles B. J. Févret de Saint-Mémin
**Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin** Born on March 12, 1770, in Dijon, France, to marquis Bénigne-Charles Févret de Saint-Mémin, a former conseiller au Parlement de Bourgogne, and Victoire-Marie de Motmans, a creole from Port-au-Prince, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin received a military education at the École Militaire in Paris, graduating in 1785. He served as a cad...