Gouverneur Morris

Periodca. 1790 - 1810

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions29 × 24 in. (73.7 × 61 cm)

ClassificationsPortraits

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. William C. Riker, 1963

Object number1982.406

DescriptionHalf-length portrait of a gray-haired man facing right, wearing a navy blue coat with brass buttons, a white shirt, and white stock.
NotesThe subject of this portrait was the grandson of Lewis Morris, a royal governor of New Jersey from 1738 to 1746. Gouveneur (1752 - 1816) was born at Morrisania Manor in the Bronx, a son of Lewis Morris II and Sarah Gouveneur. After graduating from King’s College (now Columbia), he practiced law in New York but soon became occupied with the revolutionary movement. He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1778-1779, and assistant minister of finance from 1781 to 1785. Morris was appointed as special commissioner to England in 1790, and in 1792 as United States minister to France. While in the latter post, Morris did much to promote trade between France and America. His political career continued when he became a U. S. Senator in 1800. From 1810 to 1813, he served as chairman of the Erie Canal Commission. Morris became vice president of The New-York Historical Society in 1810, and was elected its president in the year of his death, which occurred in New York.

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