Man with Cane and Top Hat

Artist Charles Fenderich

Period1836

MediumGouache and watercolor over graphite on paper

Dimensions13.25 × 11 in. (33.7 × 27.9 cm)

SignedInscribed lower left, “Ch.S. Fenderich / Oct [?] 1836.”

ClassificationsPortraits

Credit LineGift of Gilbert H. Van Note, from the estate of Elizabeth Vredenburgh Knight, 1977

Object number1977.3.51

DescriptionYoung man facing right, wearing gray trousers and vest, black jacket, white shirt, and black tie. Seated in a fancy chair, he also sports a top hat in his left hand, a cane in his right hand, and a red handkerchief in his right breast pocket. He sits in an imaginary landscape with an architectural column on the left, nearby plants around him, and distant hills, fields and a lake on the right.
Curatorial RemarksCharles Fenderich, a German-born portraitist and lithographer, came to America about 1830. From the early 1830s to the late 1840s, he worked in Philadelphia, Washington, D. C., and New York for various engravers, moving from city to city as necessary. Fenderich’s name next appears in San Francisco city directories from 1856 to 1872, after which nothing is known of him. This small work is inscribed “Ch.s Fenderich Oct [?] 1836.” The Lippincott family were ancestors and relatives of Elizabeth Vredenburgh Knight.NotesNo information is known about the identity of the sitter other than a modern paper label removed from the back of the painting which reads “Lippincott.” Nonetheless, he is a dapperly dressed young man complete with walking stick, top hat, and a red handkerchief rakishly spilling out of his breast pocket.

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