Frederick Douglass ('Frederick Douglass, 1850')
- Artist: Avant Arte
- Artist: Elizabeth Peyton
- Date: 2023
- Medium: silkscreen print on paper
- Dimensions: 18 3/4 in. x 14 3/4 in. (476 mm x 376 mm) paper size
- Portrays: Frederick Douglass
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is “Frederick Douglass (‘Frederick Douglass, 1850’)”. You see a portrait of the African‑American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, seated and looking slightly to his left. He wears a plain shirt and the relaxed posture of someone who has spoken before crowds and written essays. The image was created as a silkscreen print on paper in 2023 by Avant Arte, based on an original painting by Elizabeth Peyton from 2020 that itself lifted a daguerreotype dated about 1850.
The print measures roughly 476 × 376 mm – enough to fill the frame with detail and texture of Douglass’s face and hands. In the mid‑1800s, after his escape from slavery in 1838, he led the American anti‑slavery movement, gave hundreds of public lectures during a two‑year stay in Britain and Ireland, and continued writing and lobbying for equality until his death in 1895.
See it in person
Frederick Douglass ('Frederick Douglass, 1850') is in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery at St Martin's Place, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
