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Accession #	85.23
Artist	Samuel Finley Breese Morse
Title	Jonas Platt
Date	1828
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	35 15/16 x 29 7/16 in. (91.3 x 74.8 cm)
Signed	Unsigned
Credit Line	Dick S. Ramsay Fund
Location	Visible Storage: Case 24, Screen J (Paintings)

Curatorial Remarks:

Samuel F.B. Morse was at the peak of his career when he portrayed Jonas Platt, who is presented as a soberly dressed man of affairs, with book and documents nearby, facing us in a confident yet thoughtful manner. The drapery and glimpse of sky are scaled-down elements drawn from grandmanner portraiture and signal Platt's prominence.

The sitter and artist were both active in politics and concerned with the application of scientific and technological advances to national purpose. Platt had been an early promoter of the Erie Canal, and Morse was not only the finest portrait painter in New York, but an inventor as well. A decade after completing this work, Morse retired from his artistic career to devote himself to the development of the telegraph.