# William Wilson

**George Catlin** (born Wilkes-Barre, PA 1796-died Jersey City, NJ 1872)  
ca. 1826  
watercolor on ivory  
sight 2 1/8 x 1 3/4 in. (5.4 x 4.4 cm) oval

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1980.126.1. [The museum's record](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=4470).

## About this work

William Wilson (1762-1844) was born in Scotland and, after moving to New York, married Agnes Ann Kerr of Edenton, North Carolina, in 1786. Their grandchildren’s marriages into the Lamb and Repiton families of North Carolina are commemorated in four other miniatures in this collection, of William Boswell Lamb and his wife, Margaret Kerr Lamb (see 1980.126.4 and 1980.126.5), and Joseph Lavoir Repiton and his wife, Marguerite Tangier Repiton (see 1980.126.2 and 1980.126.3).

_Text from the Smithsonian American Art Museum._

George Catlin painted this in about 1826, aged 30. It is now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

### How it was made

- **Watercolour on ivory.** Thin sheets of ivory gave watercolour a luminous, skin-like glow, which made them the favourite support for portrait miniatures from the early 1700s.
- **Watercolour.** Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.

### [George Catlin](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/george-catlin)

born Wilkes-Barre, PA 1796-died Jersey City, NJ 1872

Catlin gave up the law to paint, first as a portraitist in Philadelphia, and from 1830 made a series of journeys west from St Louis to record the peoples of the Plains. On a steamboat trip up the Missouri in 1832 he painted hundreds of portraits and scenes of daily life and landscape. He toured his “Indian Gallery” through the eastern cities and Europe, and his illustrated books made these images widely known.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Painting-Miniature
- The artist was 30
- Real size: about 2 × 1½ in (5 × 4 cm). The original is small: even the 8 × 10 in print shows it larger than life.
- Century: 19th century
- Subjects: Men, Portraits
- Colour: black
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1957.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1957/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/william-wilson-si-saam-1980-126-1).