Portrait of a Gentleman
c. 1702/1720
Painter
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 115 x 92.5 cm (45 1/4 x 36 7/16 in.)
framed: 130.8 x 108.6 x 5.1 cm (51 1/2 x 42 3/4 x 2 in.) -
Accession
1947.17.86
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
(Rose M. [Mrs. Augustus] de Forest, New York); sold 16 January 1923 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York, as a portrait of Sir Peter Warren by John Watson;[1] sold by Clarke's executors to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), from whom it was purchased 29 January 1936, as part of the Clarke collection, by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift to NGA, 1947.
[1] According to 1928 Clarke exhibition catalogue annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library). The provenance from James de Lancey of New York, brother-in-law of the supposed sitter, supplied by the dealer, de Forest, has been regarded with suspicion and cannot be verified. See memorandum of 26 January 1966 by William P. Campbell, in NGA curatorial files.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1924
Exhibition of the Earliest Known Portraits of Americans by Painters of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, The Union League Club, New York, March 1924, no. 1, as Sir Peter Warren by John Watson.
1925
A Loan Exhibition of the Earliest Known Portraits of Americans Painted in This Country by Painters of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, The Century Association, New York, 1925, no. 13, as Sir Peter Warren by John Watson.
1928
Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Collected by Thomas B. Clarke, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928-1931, unnumbered and unpaginated catalogue, as Sir Peter Warren by John Watson.
Bibliography
1932
Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. Early American Painting. New York and London, 1932: 17-18, pl. 8.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 160, repro., as Portrait of a Man by American (?).
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 309, as Portrait of a Man by Unknown [Formerly Considered American].
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 412, repro., as Portrait of a Man by Unknown Nationality 18th Century.
1992
Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 307-308, repro. 308.
Inscriptions
falsely signed and dated, reverse in ink: John Watson / 1731
Wikidata ID
Q20177737