Francis William Edmonds

Edmonds, a prominent businessman, leading participant in the cultural institutions of New York, amateur painter and National Academician traveled to Europe in 1841, joining Durand in Rome. Although this drawing is quite similar to the artist’s oil portrait of Edmonds painted earlier in their European tour, here the sitter appears more introspective. Edmonds’s inward expression is emphasized by the contrast between Durand’s finely nuanced rendering of the sitter’s heavy facial features and his summary indication of the rest of the figure. Durand’s decision to draw the portrait may have been prompted by his desire to record Edmonds’s changed physical appearance (the thick mustache and sideburns do not appear in the oil portrait painted a few months before) and as a remembrance of their association while abroad.