Portrait of a Man

Thomas Skynner's Portrait of a Man, painted around 1845, is another example of the American folk portrait tradition in its final decades. Skynner's itinerant practice took him through rural New England communities where painted portraits were still the primary means of recording family likenesses. These straightforward, honest images document the ordinary Americans of the mid-nineteenth century with unaffected directness.

Skynner's oil-on-canvas technique shows his characteristic solid, direct handling with careful attention to individual features. The portrait demonstrates the practical, competent standard of American folk portraiture in its mature period.