Portrait of William Cullen Bryant

1860

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 730

This intimate portrait by renowned landscape painter Sanford Gifford depicts New York poet, newspaper editor, and reformer William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), who was also a founding trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Based on a carte-de-visite photograph, the painting captures the sitter’s contemplative expression, wrinkled skin, bushy eyebrows, and full white beard, revealing his advancing age. Bryant’s nature-inspired poetry often evoked pleasure in the solitude found in the woods and is related to the aesthetic of the Hudson River School landscape painters with whom he was friends.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Title: Portrait of William Cullen Bryant
Artist: Sanford Robinson Gifford (Greenfield, New York 1823–1880 New York, New York)
Date: 1860
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Sight: 8 × 6 in. (20.3 × 15.2 cm)
Framed: 16 1/2 × 14 7/16 × 2 1/4 in. (41.9 × 36.7 × 5.7 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Laura Grey, in memory of David Grey, 2025
Object Number: 2025.793
Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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