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DiaporamaWashington Irving and his Literary Friends at Sunnyside
Neoclassicism
1864
199.0 x 134.0 cm
National Portrait Gallery
This imaginary scene shows fifteen celebrated literary figures gathered at the home of Washington Irving, author of such popular tales as “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820). Advertisements published in the New York Times in December 1863 announced the painting’s exhibition at a Manhattan art gallery, where visitors could purchase a fifty-four-page booklet describing the work. “It is, in the truest and completest sense, a National picture,” the anonymous author declared, and its production “will be universally regarded as a National event.” The painting resulted from a collaborative effort. The photographer Mathew Brady captured the like-ness of each writer (including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Irving himself), and the artist F. O. C. Darley designed the group composition. Working from those materials, Christian Schussele painted this canvas while Thomas Oldham Barlow engraved a widely reproduced print.
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About this artwork
- Title: Washington Irving and his Literary Friends at Sunnyside
- Artist: christian schussele
- Year: 1864
- Original dimensions: 199.0 x 134.0 cm
- Format: Landscape
- Copyright status: Under copyright
- Where to see it: National Portrait Gallery
- Movement: Neoclassicism
- Corpus context: literary pride , american identity
- Main color: Espresso
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