Benjamin Franklin Butler

Benjamin Franklin Butler was a lawyer and close friend of President Martin Van Buren , with whom he shared a law practice. This portrait, painted around 1833, when Butler was appointed Attorney General of the United States under president Andrew Jackson , was either commissioned by Van Buren or given to him.

The attentive, alert gaze of the sitter is typical of the work of Chester Harding , an itinerant painter who got his start painting in the frontier towns of Kentucky. Initially self-taught, Harding memorably described the excitement he felt after completing his first portrait in 1816:"The moment I saw the likeness I became frantic with delight: it was like the discovery of a new sense." By the time this portrait was made, Harding had spent three successful years in England and Scotland and had settled in Boston , where he enjoyed celebrity and a busy practice.