(Portrait Sketch of an Actor)

Media - 1977.132 - SAAM-1977.132_1 - 49061
Copied Unidentified, (Portrait Sketch of an Actor), ca. 1830, oil on wood, 2015 78 in. (50.940.4 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1977.132
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Artwork Details

Title
(Portrait Sketch of an Actor)
Artist
Unidentified
Date
ca. 1830
Dimensions
2015 78 in. (50.940.4 cm.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on wood
Classifications
Keywords
  • Portrait male — unidentified
  • Performing arts — theater
Object Number
1977.132

Artwork Description

This unfinished portrait captures the guile and wariness of an actor who very likely had to struggle for a living. America’s middle class in the nineteenth century regarded actors as little better than peddlers and cardsharps. Only a few, such as Edwin Booth and Fanny Kemble, managed to achieve a measure of respectability. The uncertain, appraising look in the man’s eyes undercuts the cocky assurance of his preposterous and tattered straw hat. In 1867 a critic for the Atlantic Monthly wrote: “It is an accepted dogma in dramatic art, that whatever is presented on the stage must necessarily be enlarged and exaggerated . . . [an actor] is apt to represent all shades and degrees of passion through . . . exaggerated tone, stride, and gesture.”