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Martin Van Buren (?)

Maker (American, 1804 - 1868)
ClassificationsPAINTINGS
Date1825-1830
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 30 × 25 in. (76.2 × 63.5 cm.) frame: 36 1/4 × 31 1/2 × 2 1/2 in. (92.1 × 80 × 6.4 cm.)
Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens Henry E. Huntington Bequest
Label TextIn many of Shepard Alonzo Mount's early portraits, his subjects are seated before an open window. The device of the window, which gives a painting the illusion of depth and allows the artist to bring nature into a composition, had been popular in the United States from the Colonial period (see for example John Singleton Copley's Sarah Jackson in an adjacent gallery).

Henry E. Huntington purchased the painting as a portrait of the eighth president of the United States, Martin van Buren. If it does depict van Buren, the Hudson River landscape may refer to his political ties to New York state, while the folded paper in his hand could be a piece of legislation. However, the likeness does not resemble other portraits of van Buren, and the identity of the sitter is now questioned.

Mount was the brother of genre painter William Sidney Mount. While Shepard specialized in portraiture, he also produced accomplished landscapes and still lifes.


Status
Not on view
Object number24.34
Lady with a Bird
Charles Shepard Chapman
n.d.
Object number: 91.221
Portrait of a Man, Member of the Van Keuren Family
Ammi Phillips
ca. 1825 - 1830
Object number: 2016.25.106
Portrait of a Woman, Member of the Van Keuren Family
Ammi Phillips
ca. 1825 - 1830
Object number: 2016.25.107
Le-Van-Us
E. A. Burbank
ca. 1922-1930
Object number: 87.60.349
Lake Van Norden
Edward Henry Weston
1937
Object number: 000.111.297
Lake Van Norden
Edward Henry Weston
1937
Object number: 000.111.295
Lake Van Norden
Edward Henry Weston
1937
Object number: 000.111.296
Le-Van-Us
E. A. Burbank
ca. 1922-1930
Object number: 87.60.289
[Terese Van Grove, chin up]
Edward Henry Weston
n.d.
Object number: 000.111.508
[Terese Van Grove with a branch]
Edward Henry Weston
n.d.
Object number: 000.111.511
[Terese Van Grove, Nude Back]
Edward Henry Weston
n.d.
Object number: 000.111.509
[Terese Van Grove, standing against a Wall]
Edward Henry Weston
n.d.
Object number: 000.111.510