Winfield Scott
1786 - 1866
In 1850 Mathew Brady, Charles E. Lester, and Francis D'Avignon collaborated on a series of elegant lithograph portraits based on Brady's original daguerreotypes. When D'Avignon copied Brady's daguerreotypes for printing, he made it possible for Brady to sell many copies of images that were otherwise unique. Lester, a journalist and entrepreneur, wrote short biographical essays to accompany each portrait, which Brady issued bimonthly to subscribers over the next two years. The series, titled Gallery of Illustrious Americans, was intended to portray heroes of the present, while conveying their historical stature and significance for the future. For example, Lester compared General Winfield Scott to Hannibal and Napoleon. He insisted that this portrait captured Scott's whole character, "the majesty, the dignity, and the heroic bearing of the man . . . the piercing gaze of his eye; the sublimity of his moral character are all of them visible in . . . his face and form."

See Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott Hancock, and Robert E. Lee

Francis D'Avignon (born circa 1814), after Mathew Brady
Lithograph, 1850 28.2 x 24.5 cm (11 1/8 x 9 5/8 inches)
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.