JHCC Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Fascinating story about this portrait. Pat Lyon (1779-1829) was a British-born blacksmith in Philadelphia who rose in business and industry and became a wealthy man. However, in earlier years, he was unjustly accused of complicity in a bank robbery (he’d made the locks) and imprisoned in the Walnut Street Jail, whose cupola is visible in the background. When he sat for noted Philadelphia portraitist John Neagle, he reportedly told him that he did “not wish to be represented as what I am not—a gentleman” (as he associated “gentility” with the unjust treatment he’d received previously from the Philadelphia bankers) and insisted that he be depicted with the source of his fortune rather than with the glittering trappings of success. https://www.mfa.org/collections/object/pat-lyon-at-the-forge-34216 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Anybody surprised that that is a "colonial style" anvil? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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