Artist: John Mix Stanley On November 15, 1833, President Jackson appointed Butler Attorney General of the United States, from which office he resigned in 1838. From that year until 1841 he was United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Butler was made principal law professor at the University of the City of New York in 1837. On November 8, 1858, he died in Paris, France.
About the Artist: John Mix Stanley (1814-1872)
Stanley was a portrait and landscape painter who specialized in scenes of Indian life in the West. Born in New York, he travelled extensively throughout the West and settled in Detroit in 1834 where he took up portrait painting. After 1850 he deposited his "Indian Gallery" at the Smithsonian Institution in hopes the Federal Government would purchase it. His hopes were not realized, but he remained in Washington, D.C, for the next decade. Tragically, his collection was almost totally destroyed by fire while being exhibited at the Smithsonian in 1865.
Stanley’s portrait of Attorney General Butler was copied from one painted by Charles Bird King. |
