Washington Irving and his Literary Friends at Sunnyside

Fifteen of America's leading writers crowd into this warm, wood-paneled room, all gathered around Washington Irving, the author of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." He sits at the center in his dark coat, relaxed and clearly the man everyone came to see. Christian Schussele painted the scene in 1864 and set it at Sunnyside, Irving's home in Tarrytown, New York. But here is the twist: this afternoon never really happened. Schussele pieced the gathering together from separate portraits, building a literary dream team that pleased both the authors and the readers who cherished them.

Among the crowd you will find poet William Cullen Bryant along with Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Fenimore Cooper, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Group portraits like this were a popular way to stir up national pride at a time when America was still figuring out its own cultural identity. Born in France and later settled in Philadelphia, Schussele worked in a careful realist style, using warm light and deep red drapery to give the room a slightly grand, stagelike mood.

Small details keep the fantasy feeling grounded, from the top hat and cane left on the floor to the sleepy dog tucked beside the chairs. The painting is not high drama, and it never tries to be. Instead it offers a friendly glimpse of how a young country liked to imagine its finest minds, sitting together in easy company while quietly writing the stories that would come to define American literature.