William Constable

after Gilbert Stuart

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the chest up, a pale-skinned, clean-shaven man wearing a sapphire-blue coat over a white cravat looks out from this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body is angled to our left, but he turns his face to look at us from the corners of his gray eyes. His smooth cheeks are flushed, and he smiles slightly. His white hair, probably a wig, sweeps back from his forehead and curls over his ears. His snow-white cravat is tied in a bow, and the pointed ends of the fabric fall over the wide lapels of his coat. The man is lit from our right, and a sheen on the high collar suggests velvet. Brass buttons gleam on the front of the coat. The background lightens from dark brown across the top to pale fawn brown along the bottom.