This is one of my favorite Alexander Hamilton portraits, perhaps because he is so young and his hair isn’t powdered, and maybe it’s not an accurate likeness but at least it’s not a Charles Peale, who was very bad at art and yet somehow did lots of shitty portraits.

This is actually a detail view of Alonzo Chappel’s portrait of Hamilton as a captain in the New York artillery. I love the helmet. I love his rosy cheeks and his strawberry blonde hair. I sense that the artist put these details there intentionally, because he remembered them. And of course I love his intense face, thinking about shooting some fucking redcoats. In the full picture, his arms are folded over his chest, he’s leaning on a redoubt, and is wearing black stockings and a sword. It’s the best.