Portrait of George Hoadly

Eliphalet Frazer Andrews was an American portrait painter who was appointed director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington — his portrait practice serving the political and governmental elite of the American capital during the Gilded Age. His 'Portrait of George Hoadly' (1885) depicts the Governor of Ohio (1883-1885) — a Democratic politician who served as Ohio's governor during a contentious period of labor agitation and political reform. Andrews's portraits of American political figures documented the personnel of the Gilded Age American state.

Andrews renders Governor Hoadly with the academic competence and dignified formality required by political portraiture — the Governor's bearing and the formal portrait conventions appropriate to his office depicted with the professional skill of a painter whose career was built on such commissions. His handling of the portrait's formal elements (the formal dress, the composed expression, the conventional portrait setting) reflects his sustained experience with the specific requirements of political portraiture.