Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de - Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick - 1805 - T-Shirt

This is a chalk and crayon profile of Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick, drawn in 1805 on a warm rose-pink ground, with the sitter turned to the left and his queued hair fixed in a clean outline.

Visual Elements & Composition

Salmon pink fills most of the sheet, and black crayon makes up most of the rest. The black defines the brow, nose and jaw, and the dark coat takes up the lower half of the figure. White chalk lifts the loose cravat at the throat, the cheek and the edge of the collar. Nothing else enters the frame. There is no setting and no prop, so the outline of the face and the weight of the coat carry the image from the head down to the lower chest.

Meaning & Symbolism

The portrait presents its sitter as a man of standing. His steady, reflective expression and the controlled line suggest learning and professional position, the qualities families and friends valued in a likeness of this kind. The drawing was made by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Memin, who produced hundreds of profiles in the United States. He used a physionotrace to fix the outline and drew the features by hand, and this sheet shows that method at its most assured. The 1805 date places it among the profiles widely made in American cities in those years.

Wearing the Portrait

Saint-Memin's profiles were designed to be read at close range, and this one keeps its sitter in a single, uninterrupted silhouette. Printed across the front of the tee, the figure's head sits high on the chest and his profile faces across the wearer's body, so the pink ground and the dark coat frame the chest as one clear image.