Miner Kilbourne Kellogg, born Manlius - Costume at Smyrna, a Pilgrim from Jerusalem - unknown - T-Shirt

This is a watercolour costume study of a single standing figure, shown nearly full length against a pale, unworked ground.

Visual Elements & Composition

The figure is posed with arms held out to either side, so each garment can be read at once. A white turban wraps the head, with a red cap showing beneath it. A long, loose outer coat in ochre and mustard tones dominates the sheet, edged down the front in pale blue. A pink vest with red embroidery appears at the chest, the trousers are pale and loosely cut, and reddish slippers finish the feet. Soft grey-brown washes pool beneath the figure as a shadow. A handwritten caption sits at lower left, and the cream ground stays open around the figure.

Meaning & Symbolism

The sheet records dress rather than a portrait of an individual. Travellers in the eastern Mediterranean made images like this to classify the clothing they encountered, and the caption places the costume at Smyrna, a port city, and ties it to the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. That journey brought people from many communities across the region to the holy city, so the robe and turban stand for a costume worn by travellers rather than a single event. Kellogg, born in Manlius, New York, worked within the nineteenth-century American landscape and travel tradition, and the study belongs to the sketchbook practice of an artist recording people and dress abroad. The sheet is dated May 1844 and is held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection.

Designed for the Tee

A costume study works on a garment because the whole figure is visible at once, from turban to slippers, with nothing cropped. Across the chest and down the body, the ochre coat and pink vest carry the composition, so the image reads clearly as the wearer moves. The caption and the open cream ground keep the piece quiet, the same stillness the original sheet has.