Portrait of Honorable Levi P. Morton (after Bonnat)

 

James David Smillie

  1833 - 1909 (biography)

1902  

etching & engraving chine colle 

7 3/4 x 5 3/8" image; 8-1/2 x 5-15/16" platemark 

pencil signed beneath image, lower right 

proof 

dated after the signature; printer's signature "H. Voight. imp.", lower left; inscribed by the subject: "approved L.P. Morton" in lower sheet edge; incised in plate: "L. Bonnat -1883" and JD Smillie 1902- / N.Y." 

Witthoff 98, Smillie 98 

china paper supported on heavy laid paper 

 

was to be published in the second volume of Edmund C. Stedman's "The New York Stock Exchange: its History" but only the first volume was issued 

4052 

$800.00 

An etching and engraving after the 1883 oil painting by Léon Bonnat (French: 1833-1922), which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London. The subject, Levi Parsons Morton, was the 22nd Vice President of the United States (1889-1893), the 31st Governor of New York (1895-1896), and a U.S. Representitive for the 11th district of New York (1879-1881). He served as ambassador to France from 1881 to 1885 when this portrait was painted.

Smillie's etching of the portrait was intended for publication in the second volume of Edmund C. Stedman's The New York Stock Exchange: Its History, and the signature of L.P. Morton alongside his "Approved" annotation suggests that he was involved in the final outcome of the book's design. However, the second volume was never published.