Stephen Minot

In 1805 Stephen Minot married Sally in Boston, and the couple then sailed on a business voyage to Calcutta, the capital of British India. They were back in the United States the following year, and in New York they sat to John Trumbull for a pair of portraits. Trumbull had come home from London in 1804 and was making his living from likenesses, and his account book records 200 dollars for the two.

Minot is shown at half length against a plain ground, his hair brushed forward and a white neckcloth tied high under his chin. The picture stayed in the family until 1879, when the couple's daughter, Susan Minot, gave both portraits to the museum. Sally's portrait, painted as the companion to this one, is there too, and both keep their original frames, with leaf patterns modelled on fashionable French designs.