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Morse painted Finley in the typical dark tonalities and plain background favored for Colonial portraits.

Attention is drawn to the sitter's face through the use of light and the white shirt collar.

Morse is best known as the inventor of the telegraph, but he was also an established artist.

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Samuel Finley Breese Morse

Portrait of Dr. James. E. B. Finley

oil on canvas

30 x 25 in.

Gift of Mrs. Vernon E. Hahn

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Samuel Morse, best known for his invention of the telegraph, was born in Charlestown Massachusetts and graduated from Yale College in 1810.  With the American painter Washington Allston, he visited England and studied with Allston and Benjamin West in London.  Returning to the States five years later, Morse established himself in New England as a portrait painter.  In 1820 he became the first president of the National Academy of Design.  Between his New England and New York sojourns Morse was in Charlestown, South Carolina.  During the years he received many commissions to paint portraits and, at the same time, he worked experimentally in chemistry and electrical and galvanic fields.  As is generally known, Morse conceived the idea of the telegraph while on broad the packet ship Sully on his way from Europe to America in 1832.

Morse’s portrait of Dr. Finley is characteristic of his best canvases.  Sensitively observed and firmly painted, it reveals a careful delineation of features without affectation, and with a subordination of minor details.  Dr. James E. B. Finley (1758-1819) was an uncle of the artist, and it was Morse’s hope to make a reputation for himself in Charleston because of his uncle’s position there.  Edward Lind Morse tells of Morse’s arrival in Charleston in 1818 and reveals the following about the portrait: “At first, however, the promised success did not materialize, and it was not until after many weeks of waiting that the tide turned.  But it did turn … around the enthusiasm of the Charlestonians, and others began to pour in, so that in a few weeks he was engaged to paint one hundred and fifty portraits at sixty dollars each.”

Reference

Paul J. Straiti. Samuel F. B. Morse, Washington, D. C.: Cambridge University Press, 1990.  ISBN-13: 978-0521322188