James Massy-Dawson (?)

c. 1790/1800

Henry Singleton

Painter, British, 1766 - 1839

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on wood

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 74.1 x 59.3 cm (29 3/16 x 23 3/8 in.)
    framed: 99.1 x 85.4 x 8.3 cm (39 x 33 5/8 x 3 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1954.1.11

Media for this artwork is unavailable and the object is not on view. See artworks now on view

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Apparently John, 6th Baron Massy [1835-1915], Fetard, County Tipperary [Ireland].[1] (B.F. Stevens & Brown, London), in 1917.[2] (Tooth Brothers, London); purchased 15 May 1919 through (G.S. Sedgwick) as by Gilbert Stuart, for Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[3] 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 1954 to NGA.
[1] The dealer, G.S. Sedgwick, reportedly wrote to Thomas B. Clarke at the time of the latter's purchased of the picture that "he had seen the portrait about 1915 in Lord Massy's house near Dublin" (noted by William P. Campbell, memorandum, 10 January 1966, in NGA curatorial files).
[2] B.F. Stevens & Brown to Charles Henry Hart, 13 September 1917, offering the portrait as from the Massey-Dawson [sic] family (in NGA curatorial files).
[3] G.S. Sedgwick to Thomas Clarke, 14 and 24 April 1919, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1922

  • Portraits Painted In Europe by Early American Artists, The Union League Club, New York, January 1922, no. 14, as James Massy Dawson by Gilbert Stuart.

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 James Massy Dawson by Gilbert Stuart.

Bibliography

1926

  • Park, Lawrence. Gilbert Stuart. 4 vols. New York, 1926: 1: no. 223; 3:repro. 136.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 166, repro., as by Unknown British.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 48, repro., as British School.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 309, as by British School.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 21, repro.

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: 251-253, repro. 253.

Wikidata ID

Q20179793

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