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Chester Harding
American, 1792 – 1866
Portrait of Daniel Boone (1734 – 1820), 1820
Oil on canvas
20 5/16 × 14 1/2 in. (51.6 × 36.8 cm.)
25 3/4 × 20 × 1 11/16 in. (65.4 × 50.8 × 4.3 cm.) (frame)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur H. Almstedt
Conservation funded by the Honorable Order of the Kentucky Colonels, 2015 1957.7
Harding’s Brush with Fame
Portraits of politicians, wealthy landowners, and distinguished ladies may have been Chester Harding’s bread and butter, but his portrait of Daniel Boone gave him a great story for his autobiography. In 1820 Chester Harding traveled to St. Louis in search of new clients. That summer, he set out on a hundred-mile journey to locate Daniel Boone, who was living in a remote cabin in St. Charles County, Missouri. While the eighty-six-year-old Boone reminisced about his early adventures, Harding made a pencil sketch and a small oil painting of the legendary frontiersman. Harding created three copies of his original painting, including this portrait, which may be the version he gave to Lexington painter Matthew Jouett in 1821.
