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Mather Brown

William Vans Murray, 1787

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G43

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 76.2 x 63.7 cm (30 x 25 1/16 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1940.1.1

Artists / Makers

Mather Brown (painter) American, 1761 - 1831

Image Use

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Overview

Information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, pages 14-16, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/american-paintings-18th-century.pdf

Inscription

lower right, in red: M. Brown. lower right below signature, faintly in white: London / 1787

Provenance

The sitter's widow, Charlotte Hughins Murray, London;[1] gift to Richard Rush [1780-1859], Philadelphia;[2] bequeathed to his son, Benjamin Rush [1811-1877], Philadelphia.[3] (Rose M. de Forest [Mrs. Augustus de Forest], New York); purchased 5 November 1921 by Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[4] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1940 to NGA.

[1] The portrait is not mentioned in Murray's will dated 9 September 1802 (Maryland State Archives; copy, NGA curatorial file). His wife was his primary heir, receiving land in Cambridge, Maryland, and all personal property not specifically mentioned in the will.

[2] A handwritten note once attached to the reverse of the painting documents this gift (NGA curatorial file; the upper left corner of the note is missing): "... my late Husband William Vans/ ... qre belongs to Richard Rush Esqr of/ ... near Philadelphia in Pensylvania, U.S. of/ ... North America; having been presented to him by me,/ Charlotte Murray./ October 15th/ 1836./ George Street,/ Portman Square/ London." Richard Rush's wife Catherine Murray was William Vans Murray's cousin; on Rush see Dictionary of American Biography 8: 231-234.

[3] Richard Rush's will dated December 1854 (copy, NGA Curatorial file), states: "My household furniture, pictures and other things not already bequeathed, will remain in the house for the use of the daughters with me when I die. The family paintings will belong to Ben, but not be removed while the Sydenham house stands as a homestead." A note by Benjamin Rush, once attached to the reverse of the painting (NGA curatorial file), states in part: "Came to me under the Will of my Father, 1860." (The handwriting was verified by R. N. Williams, Director of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; see his letter of 25 May 1949, NGA curatorial file.) For Rush's dates see F. W. Leach, "Rush Family of Pennsylvania," in Jason Adamson, Rush Genealogy (Turlock, Ca., 1965), 11, and his obituary in The New York Times 6 July 1877, 4.

[4] The name of the seller and the date of purchase are 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).

Associated Names

Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Murray, Charlotte Hughins
Rush, Benjamin
Rush, Richard
de Forest, Rose M.

Exhibition History

1922: Portraits Painted in Europe by Early American Artists, The Union League Club, New York, 1922, no. 9.

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.

Bibliography

1928: Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Collected by Thomas B. Clarke. Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928, unnumbered.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 30, no. 487.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 249, repro. 7.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 134, repro.

1952: Rutledge and Lane 1952, 62A.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 18, repro.

1972: Evans, Dorinda. "Mather Brown (1761-1831): A Critical Study." Ph.D. dissertation, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, 1972: 82, 89, 229.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: color repro. 378.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 30, repro.

1981: Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 58, repro. 61.

1982: Evans, Dorinda. Mather Brown: Early American Artist in England. Middletown, Connecticut, 1982: repro. 73, 220.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 375, no. 527, color repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 35, repro.

1995: Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 14-16, repro. 15.