Timothy Matlack by Peale, Rembrandt

This is Timothy Matlack, painted by Rembrandt Peale in 1802. You likely know his handwriting even if you have never seen his face. Matlack was the Philadelphia merchant and public servant chosen to engross the final, official copy of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

The portrait is direct and unpretentious. Matlack's unpowdered grey hair was a deliberate statement in the early Republic, a rejection of the aristocratic wigs of the British court. His tan coat and plain waistcoat buttons reflect his Quaker upbringing, though he had been disowned by the Society of Friends for his Revolutionary activities. The quill paused in his right hand is the painting's quiet payoff: he is shown mid-writing, identified as a penman above all else, with the documents of a working clerk spread on the desk before him.

Rembrandt Peale completed this portrait in 1802, during his mature period after returning from Europe. He was part of the extraordinary Peale family of painters, and he brought a refined Neoclassical clarity to his likenesses of American civic leaders. The portrait now lives in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

An entire revolution exists in the details of a man's coat, his hair, and the way he holds a pen. What quietly radical detail would your own portrait hold?