GUIDE TO WORKS OF ART IN THE OLD STATE CAPITOL

Click on the links below to see a picture of the artwork.

1. Birds of America, by John J. Audubon
Audubon, the brilliant artist and naturalist who dedicated much of his life to painting the birds of North America, lived in Kentucky for fourteen years. The Kentucky Historical Society has an extensive collection of Audubon chromolithographs and engravings which are exhibited on a rotating basis.

2. Gideon Shryock
Shryock, a Lexington native, was the architect of the Old State Capitol. This was the first structure he designed to be built: structures of his design include the Franklin County and Jefferson County courthouses.

3. Joel Tanner Hart
Hart was the Clark County, Kentucky, sculptor of note during the antebellum years. His busts of Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson were among his best works.

4. Henry Clay, by Joel Tanner Hart
The state of Kentucky purchased this white marble bust of "The Great Compromiser" from the sculptor in 1874.

5. Andrew Jackson, by Joel Tanner Hart
The sculptor modeled this bust at the Hermitage, Jackson's home near Nashville, in 1838. The state of Kentucky purchased the bust from Hart in 1874. Jackson and Henry Clay were bitter political adversaries.

6. John Marshall, by James Reid Lambdin
Marshall (1755-1835), was appointed Chief Justice of the United States in 1801. The painting is on loan from the Kentucky Supreme Court.

7. Philip Barbour
Major Barbour, Kentucky native, was an officer of the third Regiment of the United States Infantry. He died at Monterrey during the war with Mexico. He is buried in the Frankfort Cemetery.

8. Isaac Shelby, by Edward C. Nock
Shelby was governor of Kentucky from 1792 to 1796 and from 1812 to 1816. Nock painted this work in 1850 under commission from the Commonwealth.

9. Henry Clay, by William Frye
The state commissioned this painting for the Capitol in 1865.

10. William Henry Harrison
This painting was attributed to S.T. Bancroft. General Harrison was a great hero in early Kentucky. The Whig State Central Committee of Ohio presented the painting to the state of Kentucky in 1840, the year Harrison was elected.

11. Zachary Taylor, by William C. Allen
Born in Virginia in 1785, the future president moved to Kentucky before his first birthday. The hero of the Mexican War is depicted on his horse "Old Whitey." He died in the White House in 1850. The Kentucky Historical Society bought the painting in 1909.

12. Daniel Boone, by William C. Allen
The artist presented this romanticized portrait of Kentucky's preeminent frontiersman to the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1839.

13. George Washington, by Oliver Frazer and William Shackleford
Frazer and Shackleford took this likeness from the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington. The Kentucky General Assembly commissioned this painting for this room in 1834.

14. The Marquis de Lafayette, by Matthew Hattis Jouett
The famed Kentucky portrait artist painted Revolutionary War hero Lafayette during the Frenchman's 1825 visit to Kentucky.

15. Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, by F.D. Brisco

16. Congress Hall, Philadelphia, by F.D. Brisco
These two paintings were presented to Kentucky in 1892 by the "Patriotic Citizens of Philadelphia" to commemorate Kentucky's entrance into the Union in 1792.