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Artwork Page for Nathaniel Olds

Details / Information for Nathaniel Olds

Nathaniel Olds

1837
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(American, 1811–1890)
America, Ohio, Cleveland
oil on canvas
Framed: 87 x 71.8 x 5.7 cm (34 1/4 x 28 1/4 x 2 1/4 in.); Unframed: 76.5 x 61.2 cm (30 1/8 x 24 1/8 in.)
Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of Jeptha H. Wade III 1991.134.2
Location: 205 Federal American
Public Domain
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This painting has a distinguished history inspiring Halloween costumes in the Cleveland area.

Description

Nathaniel Olds’s glasses have four tinted lenses, two of which are hinged side shields. This style was typically worn to protect sensitive eyes from excessive light, dust, or wind. Due to their occasional use during open-air travel, they were sometimes referred to as carriage or railroad spectacles. The painter of this portrait founded the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1854 and soon became one of Cleveland’s wealthiest industrialists. His grandson, Jeptha Wade II, was a founder of the Cleveland Museum of Art and donated the land upon which it stands as a Christmas gift to the city in 1892.
Portrait of Nathaniel Olds, a man with a light skin tone, faint stubble of a moustache, bushy dark brown eyebrows, and slightly wavy hair. He wears glasses with four, green tinted half-oval lenses—two in front of his eyes and two on the sides—and is dressed in a formal black coat with a stiff white collar. Olds sits against a neutral brown background and is painted with minimal shading, giving him a somewhat flat appearance.

Nathaniel Olds

1837

Jeptha Homer Wade

(American, 1811–1890)
America, Ohio, Cleveland

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