TitleSelf-Portrait
Artist
Thomas Hovenden
(1840 - 1895)
Daten.d.
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 19 3/4 × 16 in.
Framed: 25 3/8 × 21 3/8 × 1 1/2 in.
SubmissionANA diploma presentation, May 1, 1882
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number596-P
Label TextHovenden is known to have executed at least three other self-portraits, all of which include props and genre details not present in the Academy's painting. Two earlier portraits, of about 1870 (unlocated) and 1875 (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut), show the artist seated in crowded studios. A late, smaller work of about 1890 (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) shows him holding eyeglasses and some type of image on paper. It is not surprising that the Academy's portrait is more simply conceived; its purpose was mainly to serve as an accurate likeness.
