Who is the Sitter?

William Thomas Stead(?)

Alexander Gram Bell(?)

Etc.

LARGE (approx 50 in.) oil on canvas dated 1900, Baltimore gallery/framer's label verso. American artist: Becker, 1841 - 1910.

 

Isn't there one of those reverse image sites on the net -- where you copy the image and then it searches for same or similar?

 

Definitely not Bell (btw his middle name is spelled Graham.) I was thinking perhaps Andrew Carnegie, although that is a long shot. Similar but not enough to say for sure.

 

Wendy, Google Chrome has one, but I didn't find this portrait.
The face does look familiar.
It's not Stead or Bell.

Nuff, I take it that the artist is (Carl J) Joseph Becker?

 

could it be Beard McFrownFace...a very popular curmudgeon from that period ?

 

@Baker, thanks for the correction and taking a look.

@Messi, he does look familiar (one of the reasons why we made the purchase) and yes, he's the artist.

These are some examples of his work...

Civil War Drawings: http://idesweb.bc.edu/becker/digitool?action=1&strKeyWords=Becker&element=creator

 

@Komo, not even close, but thanks!

 

sigh . . . I have checked everything I could think of. Railroad/Industry/University, but nada, zilch, zip, zero.
This will now drive me nuts.

 

That's ok, thanks anyway.

I know the feeling. Drove us nuts for these past few months and we finally gave-up searching -- for now any way. Hopefully someone will come along and ID the sitter.

 

I remember this, was it the Titanic captain?

 

Hey Sharona!!! ))))))))))))) How are you? All ready for the holidays?

Yeah, this painting has been sitting in a dark hole for sometime now. We're in the process of purchasing another home so trying to weed some items out. This is going to be either listed or dumped starting 2015.

The sitter does resemble the Captain Edward J. Smith, but I don't think it's him.

 

Hey Nuff! Yes were ready

 

Nuff, would it be worth contacting one of the places that hold his work, and asking them?

 

this type of artist would also do private commissions ...so the man could be a wealthy patron and nothing more....

 

In the same way that not all artists are famous, not all subjects are famous either.

 

Is it possible that the man is a judge? To me the garb he is wearing is so high up toward his neck (meaning so little tie is showing) that I think he "may" be wearing a judicial robe. The black in the clothing is so dark that I can't make out if there are "gathers/pleats" extending along the top front from the shoulders of the garment.

 

Could this be Frank Leslie, the owner of the illustrated newspaper that Becker worked for? There is some similarity in the hair/beard and facial features.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Leslie

 

Leslie died 20 years before the date on the portrait?

 

I know, but his wife or family or even the Newspaper could have commissioned it. A lot of companies, even today have portraits done of deceased owners/founders to hang in lobbies and board rooms.

 

True enough but they don't generally wait two decades before commissioning the portrait.

Why not just call it "Portrait of a gentleman"? Tons of museums and auction houses default to the title.