Charles Loring Elliott

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Charles Loring Elliott (1812-68) was an American portrait painter. He was born at Auburn, N.Y., and studied in New York City under Trumbull and Quidor. After practicing portrait painting in New York State for 10 years he took up residence in New York City in 1845 and the following year was elected to the National Academy of Design. Elliott was the best portraitist of his day, and although he never went abroad his technique is neither provincial nor uncertain. His method is mature, his drawing firm, his color fresh and clean, and his likenesses excellent, though somewhat lacking in sentiment. He is said to have painted over 700 portraits, mostly heads, as he had little idea of the composition of large canvases. Among his sitters were Fenimore Cooper, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Fletcher Harper, A. B. Durand (The Corcoran Gallery, Washington), and Governor Bouck (City Hall, New York). There are other portraits by him in the New York City Hall, the State Library at Albany, and four examples in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. He also painted figure pieces, including "Don Quijote" and "Falstaff," and one landscape, "The Head of Skaneateles Lake."