Portrait Paintings

Chester Dale (1883 – 1962) was an American banker and art collector. Dale earned his wealth from the New York Stock Exchange, which then allowed him to become a major collector of nineteenth- and twentieth-century French paintings. Major works from his collection were donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1941, as well as via bequest in 1963.

Collection: The Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands

Born Cherokee town of Tuskegee, eastern Tennessee Sequoyah, the son of a Cherokee woman and a fur trader from Virginia, was a warrior, hunter, and silversmith. For twelve years, he worked to devise a method of writing for the Cherokee language. His syllabary, which ultimately included eighty-six symbols representing each of the language’s syllables, was approved by the Cherokee chiefs in 1825. The system made possible a rapid spread of literacy throughout the Cherokee Nation and the creation of written documents, including a constitution in 1827. The following year, the Cherokee Phoenix, a weekly bilingual newspaper, began publication in New Echota, Georgia.

Collection: National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark

Collection: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain

Catherine Maria Fisher (1741-1767), English Courtesan.

Édouard Blau (1836 – 1906) was a French dramatist and opera librettist. He was a cousin of Alfred Blau, another librettist of the same period.

Sarah Siddons (1755 – 1831), was the greatest tragic actress of her age. She was particularly famous for her interpretations of Shakespearian roles, in particular Lady Macbeth. Siddons retired from the stage in 1812.

Michael Gottlieb Birckner Bindesbøll (1800 – 856) was a Danish architect active during the Danish Golden Age in the first half of the 19th century. Most known for his design of Thorvaldsens Museum in Copenhagen, he was a key figure in the stylistic shift in Danish architecture from late classicism to Historicism. He was the father of the designer Thorvald Bindesbøll and the textile artist Johanne Bindesbøll.

Countess Anna Ivanovna Tolstaya (1774-1825) was the sister of prince Ivan Baryatinsky, wife of Marshal Nikolai Alexandrovich Tolstoy (1765–1816), a close friend of the Empress Elizabeth Alexeyevna and memoirist Countess Varvara Golovina.

Collection: National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark

Depicted Person: Robert Southey (1774-1843), Poet Laureate.

Collection: The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Both Grant and Strachey were central members of the influential Bloomsbury group of English artists and intellectuals

The actress Margaret (Maggie) Liddell Linck was a suffragette. She joined the militant Women’s Social and Political Union in February 1907 and was arrested during a demonstration at the House of Commons. Linck refused to pay the fine imposed on her and was sentenced to two weeks in prison. She subsequently joined the non-violent Women’s Freedom League and served as the treasurer of its Scottish council. In 1897 she married the photographer, actor and playwright Graham Moffat. Moffat was also an advocate of the equal rights of women. He formed the Glasgow Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage for ‘the husbands and brothers of active suffragettes and their male sympathizers.’ The green and purple colours associated with the suffrage movement are present in the portrait.

Collection: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, United States

Catherine-Rosalie Gérard Duthé (1748–1830) was a famous French courtesan and Paris Opera dancer. Known for her striking blonde hair and wealthy royal lovers, historical anecdotes credit her as the first officially recorded "dumb blonde" due to her habit of long, thoughtful pauses before speaking.