TitleSelf-Portrait
Artist
Marcus Waterman
(American, 1834 - 1914)
Date1861
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 27 3/4 × 23 3/4 in.
SubmissionANA diploma presentation, April 17, 1862
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1384-P
Label TextBeing primarily a landscapist, Waterman had no experience in portraiture when he undertook the execution of this work. Many years later, he recalled the event in a letter to the National Academy:I regret to confess that I am the guilty party who painted the frightful portrait in question. I never saw it but once since I did it & it filled me with horror & remorse. If there is any survivor of the scores of painters who were friends of mine in New York some fifty years ago, he will oblige me by taking the said painting & giving it a good glaze of ivory black, wiping out a spot somewhere & thus converting it into a Whistler. I was a boy in my twenties when I did it & had never painted a head before. I hope I may be forgiven.
