John Henry BrownAmerican
James Buchanan
May one see it?
Unknown: the museum keeps its counsel
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Washington, D.C., United States
The owner is known. Whether it is on view today, the museum does not say, and we were not trained to guess.
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum's own collection data
About the painting
John Henry Brown chose to paint this miniature from a daguerreotype he made of United States president James Buchanan (1791-1868), and took great satisfaction in the likeness. James Buchanan Henry, the president’s nephew and ward, later wrote a biography of his uncle, commenting that “The best likeness of him is a miniature portrait on ivory, by Brown of Philadelphia . . . Buchanan was tall---over six feet, broad shouldered, and had a portly and dignified bearing . . . his features [were] strong and well marked, [and] his eyes were blue, intelligent and kindly, with the peculiarity that one was far and the other near sighted, which resulted in a slight habitual inclination of the head to one side.”
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- 1906.9.2
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Smithsonian American Art Museum: the museum's own open data · fetched 6 days ago
- Image: Smithsonian American Art Museum — CC0
