Banknote motifs: the number 5 and a portrait of Thayendanegea

Banknote motifs: the number 5 and a portrait of Thayendanegea

Asher Brown Durand

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This portrait of the Mohawk chief Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant) was created to adorn banknotes engraved by A. B. C. Durand & Co. Small proofs like this were used to design notes for individual banks (American paper currency was printed by various private companies until 1869 and standarized designs for notes introduced only in 1929). Political and military leaders were often portrayed, but the choice of Thayendanego is unusual since he fought for the British during the Revolutionary War. After 1781, he devoted himself to negotiating rights for his people and led 2,000 followers to establish the Six Nations Reserve in Upper Canada (now Brandtford, Ontario) in 1785. This engraved image reproduces a portrait made at Albany in 1806, one year before the sitter's death. Not expecting to be painted, Thayendangea arrived in a European-style suit and only agreed to sit when native attire was found.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Banknote motifs: the number 5 and a portrait of ThayendanegeaBanknote motifs: the number 5 and a portrait of ThayendanegeaBanknote motifs: the number 5 and a portrait of ThayendanegeaBanknote motifs: the number 5 and a portrait of ThayendanegeaBanknote motifs: the number 5 and a portrait of Thayendanegea

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.