In place of the wild and woolly frontiersman as Gardner pictured himself in his first, c. 1861, self-portrait, this image shows him nattily attired and posed with the props of Victorian furnishings as the epitome of respectability. Leaning against the chair, with a hand on his hip and legs crossed at the ankle, Gardner is casually masterful. By 1864 he was at the height of his Civil War career, a career founded on his Antietam photographs and solidified by the opening of his Washington studio, the popularity of the Gettysburg images, and a reputation as the president’s favorite photographer.
For reasons that remain mysterious, Gardner retired from photography in 1872 and went into the insurance business; he died a decade later, leaving no records except his photographs themselves.
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National Portrait Gallery Collection
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
