Elliott’s work progressed through several stylistic phases. He first painted in general imitation of GILBERT STUART. While in New York during the 1840s he sought a rich, romantic style. In the 1850s and 1860s Elliott worked in the style most distinctively his own, one of firm and frank realism to some extent shaped by the development of photographic portraiture. With its plain background setting and distinct plastic figure, the museum’s portrait of an unknown gentleman is characteristic of Elliott’s full realist style. Elliott was thought to be best in his portraits of men particularly, as observed by Tuckerman (1867, p. 300), when the sitters have "strong, practical natures," as this one seems to have.
