Family+Group+before+United+States+Capitol

Date: ca. 1850
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/1968/1968.36_1a.jpg?itok=h11Z58g3 width="393" height="288" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/family-group-before-united-states-capitol-24686"]] || Title: **Family Group before United States Capitol**

Artist: **Unidentified**

Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 22 7/8 x 30 1/4 in. (58.2 x 76.9 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Museum purchase

Accession: 1968.36 || //Family Group before the U.S. Capitol// is thought to be a portrait of a congressman with his wife, child, and dog. They sit in an imagined park that recalls lush European gardens. The billowing clouds are also similar to European portraiture in the “grand manner” style. Around the figures the viewer sees Horatio Greenough’s classicized sculpture of George Washington and the early Capitol building designed by Charles Bulfinch which help date the portrait. By the 1850s the Greenough sculpture stood outside on a lawn and the Capitol building had red curtains. The painting could also be a pre-1850 view. Overall, the painting signifies the status of the sitters and could also signify the man’s role in American politics.
 * About the Artwork: **

Another possibility is that the portrait depicts a German or Italian craftsman and his family. In the mid-nineteenth century European artisans came to the United States to work on the Capitol. The painting may also have been created by a German or Italian immigrant artist. The artist’s signature is almost completely obliterated. There are, however, portions of Latin and Italian phrases written on the back of the painting; these phrases are only partially decipherable, but one does reference Germans living in the city.

Source: Andrew J. Cosentino and Richard W. Stephenson, //City of Magnificent Distances: The Nation’s Capital: A Checklist// (Washington: Geography and Map Division, The Library of Congress, 1991), 18; Smithsonian American Art Museum Curatorial File for //Family Group before the U.S. Capitol// by Unidentified Artist (c. 1850).

 
 * Resources: **

SAAM Collections Page
 * Links: **