Artist: John Mix Stanley

In 1796, Pinkney served as a commissioner under Jay's Treaty to settle U.S. claims against Great Britain. He was sent to England in 1806 with James Monroe on a similar mission. He returned to the United States, settled in Baltimore, and in 1811, was elected to the State senate. On December 11, 1811, Madison appointed Pinkney Attorney General of the United States. He served until February 10, 1814. He commanded a battalion of riflemen in the War of 1812, and was wounded at Bladensburg, Maryland. He served in Congress in 1815 and 1816. From 1816 until 1818, he was Minister to Russia and Envoy to Naples. On his return in 1819, he was elected to the United States Senate. He died in office on February 25, 1822, in Washington, D.C.

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.

The painting of Attorney General Pinkney was copied from a portrait by Peale in 1856.