Portrait of a Gentleman 1808

"Portrait of a Gentleman" is an 1808 miniature portrait by William M. S. Doyle, housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The painting depicts a young gentleman in a black coat with a white cravat, and the use of the delicate medium of watercolor on ivory is characteristic of the era's popular miniature portraiture. Doyle's work, with its emphasis on realistic detail, reflects the prevailing artistic trends of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and the piece would have been a treasured keepsake for its subject or their family.