Major Thomas Pechell (1753–1826) by John Hoppner

John Hoppner's portrait of Major Thomas Pechell has been hanging at the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1923, but the reason it's there is a very J.P. Morgan story.

Look at the coat. The scarlet expanse isn't a smooth, even red. Hoppner built it with a wet-on-wet technique, dragging a loaded brush across the surface in fast, gestural strokes you can still see in the lower third of the canvas. The paint itself does the work of suggesting wool and gold braid, while the face, in contrast, is tighter and more searching. His pale eyes have a quality that separates him from the smoother, idealized faces of Reynolds.

The painting was completed in 1799 or 1800, when Pechell was in his mid-forties. Hoppner was at the height of his fame, the primary rival to Thomas Lawrence and the heir to Reynolds as London's leading portraitist. He died a decade after this was painted, at only 51.

Morgan spotted the portrait in a friend's London home. The friend wouldn't sell the painting. So Morgan, in a move that clarifies how American robber-barons filled museums, bought the house. He kept the painting, gave the house back, and eventually donated the portrait to the Met. If you were J.P. Morgan, you didn't get outbid, and you didn't take no for an answer.