Image: Nathaniel Hawthorne by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze

Description: Nathaniel Hawthorne Artist Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, 24 May 1816 - 18 Jul 1868 Sitter Nathaniel Hawthorne, 4 Jul 1804 - 19 May 1864 Date 1862 Type Painting Medium Oil on canvas Dimensions Stretcher: 75.9 x 64.1 x 2.5cm (29 7/8 x 25 1/4 x 1") Frame: 101.6 x 91.8 x 10.2cm (40 x 36 1/8 x 4") Credit Line National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; transfer from the National Gallery of Art; gift of the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, 1942 Object number NPG.65.55 Exhibition Label One of the enduring myths of America is that it has no history but exists in the liberating freedom of the present moment. Nathaniel Hawthorne's novels, fables, and "tales" were a cautionary lesson to Americans who ignored the past. (Hawthorne knew the more optimistic writers represented in this room but was friends with none of them.) His writings secularized the harsh Puritan worldview of his Salem birthplace to remind Americans that actions had consequences, both for individuals and communities. His novels turn on the clash of the individual will-from the lovers in The Scarlet Letter (1850) to the naive philanthropist of The Blithedale Romance (1852)-against the implacability of society and nature. Hawthorne's sympathies are often with his rebels, but his philosophy requires their defeat. It was perhaps the irreconcilability of these viewpoints that led to his artistic decline in the 1850s. Data Source National Portrait Gallery See more items in National Portrait Gallery Collection Exhibition American Origins On View NPG, East Gallery 132
Title: Nathaniel Hawthorne by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze
Credit: National Gallery of Art
Author: Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, 24 May 1816 - 18 Jul 1868
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No