
Wikimedia Commons • Public Domain
This painting by Emanuel Leutze portrait of Nathaniel Hawthorne, capturing the American novelist and short story writer. Hawthorne was among the most important literary figures of 19th-century America, known for "The Scarlet Letter," "The House of the Seven Gables," and numerous short stories exploring guilt, sin, and the Puritan legacy.
Leutze, best known for historical paintings like "Washington Crossing the Delaware," also worked as a portraitist throughout his career. His subjects included many notable Americans of the mid-19th century. He brought the same attention to character and detail that made his historical works successful to these more intimate commissions.
This portrait now hangs at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. Hawthorne served as American consul in Liverpool from 1853 to 1857 and later lived in Italy, experiences that influenced his final works. Leutze's portrait preserves the appearance of one of America's most penetrating writers.
Other masterpieces from the Romanticism movement

Francisco Goya, 1823
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Madrid

Eugène Delacroix, 1834
Louvre, Paris, Paris

Francisco Goya, 1814
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Madrid

Francisco Goya, 1800
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Madrid

Francisco Goya, 1823
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Madrid

Eugène Delacroix, 1827
Louvre, Paris, Paris

Francisco Goya, 1800
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Madrid

J.M.W. Turner, 1839
National Gallery, London
Luxury wall art with the same mood and energy. Gallery-quality canvas, no museum crowds.
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