Portrait of a Man 1820 - 1830

Samuel John Stump created this miniature portrait of an unknown man sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century. Set within a silver frame, its diminutive size suggests intimacy and privacy, a world away from the grand, public portraits of the aristocracy. Looking at this young man, we see the trappings of bourgeois respectability: the carefully arranged cravat, the dark coat. Yet, there’s also a hint of something more, a certain softness in his gaze, and a vulnerability that complicates any straightforward reading of class identity. We can ask ourselves: what does it mean to be a man in this moment? This portrait offers a window into the shifting sands of identity during a time of revolution and social upheaval. It's a reminder that the personal is always political, and that even the smallest of objects can hold within them the complexities of history.