Images(2)

Samuel L. Southard

Maker Unknown Artist

Periodca. 1830

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions31 × 26 in. (78.7 × 66 cm)

ClassificationsPortraits

Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1942

Object number1752

DescriptionThree-quarter length portrait of a middle-aged male facing left, with full brown hair, green eyes, pronounced nose, and a full chin. He is wearing a black jacket with wide lapels, a white shirt with a high collar, a white waistcoat partly unbuttoned, and a black stock. The greenish-brown background, which creates a halo effect around his head and upper body, darkens as it nears the edges of the painting. Red fabric appears in the lower left corner.
Curatorial RemarksIn need of conservation.NotesThis portrait, long catalogued as an unidentified sitter, appears to be a likeness of Samuel Lewis Southard (1787 - 1842). Born at Basking Ridge, NJ, he was a son of Henry Southard. An 1804 graduate of the College of New Jersey in Princeton, Samuel led a long and distinguished political career. He served as a member of the New Jersey General Assembly (1815), Secretary of the United States Navy (1823 - 1829), Governor of New Jersey (1832 - 1833), United States Senator from New Jersey (1821 - 1823; 1833 - 1842), and President pro tempore of the United States Senate (1841 - 1842). He was a Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and a Whig. By profession, he was a politician, lawyer, and teacher. Southard died in Fredericksburg, VA, in 1842 at the age of fifty-five.

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