Portrait of George Burnham
Cecilia Beaux, American, 1855 - 1942
Made in United States, North and Central America
Date:
1887Medium:
Oil on canvasDimensions:
47 3/4 x 41 3/8 inches (121.3 x 105.1 cm) Framed: 53 x 46 1/2 inches (134.6 x 118.1 cm)Curatorial Department:
American Art
* Gallery 116, American Art, first floor (McCausland Gallery)
Accession Number:1986-17-1Credit Line:
Gift of Mrs. George Burnham III, 1986
The two sides of George Burnham (1817-1912) are expressed in this simultaneously dignified and informal portrait. An engineer who became the chief financial officer of Philadelphia's world-famous Baldwin Locomotive Works, Burnham was also a dedicated member of the First Swedenborgian Church.
Cecilia Beaux, the favored portrait painter of Philadelphia's elite, depicts Burnham in a somber business suit, but sitting in a stylishly rustic chair on the porch of his summer house at Lake George, New York. Against a backdrop of pines that hints at his spiritual connection to nature, he holds a book that may be one of the many church publications he sponsored.
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