Meriwether Lewis, Esq. — Stipple Engraved Portrait
After Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1816
Frame: 9¾ x 6½ inches; sight: 8 x 4¾ inches
 
A stipple-engraved portrait of Meriwether Lewis, shown standing in frontier dress with rifle at rest before a mountainous landscape evocative of the western territories explored during the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The likeness derives from the celebrated portrait by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, whose refined engravings established some of the most authoritative early likenesses of prominent figures of the early republic.
 
Issued in 1816, a decade after the expedition of 1804–1806, prints of this type contributed to the emerging visual record of American exploration and to the growing national fascination with the opening of the trans-Mississippi West.
 
Condition: Very fine with trimmed margins at upper left and lower right.