National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Mary Walton Morris
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

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Provenance

Henry Manigault Morris [1817-1892], New York;[1] his widow, Georgia Edwards Morris [d. 1894], New York; her brother-in-law, Charles Manigault Morris [1820-1895], Baltimore; his widow, Clementina Morris, Baltimore; their son, Lewis Morris [b. 1867], Neponsit, New York;[2] (William Macbeth, New York); sold 27 May 1922 to (Art House, Inc., New York);[3] Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[4] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection on 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] According to Robert Bolton, A History of the Several Towns, Manors, and Patents of the County of Westchester from its first Settlement to the Present Time, 2 vols., New York, 1881, 484, this portrait and that of NGA 1942.8.41 ( A Gentleman of the Morris Family) were inherited with other family portraits at "Morrisania," the Morris manor house in Westchester County, New York. Previous owners were identified as Lewis Morris [1752-1824] and his son Lewis Morris [1785-1863], father of Henry Manigault Morris. For the genealogy of this family see W. W. Spooner, "The Morris Family of Morrisania," American Historical Magazine I, nos. 1-5 (1906), 136-142, 321-323, 427-428.

[2] Lewis Morris provided the names of past owners to dealer William Macbeth in 1922 in letters and in a handwritten document; see the Correspondence Files, Macbeth Gallery Papers, AAA. A family tree with owners' names and dates was prepared by the Macbeth Gallery to clarify the provenance.

[3] Stock disposition card, Macbeth Gallery Papers, AAA. Clarence Dearden, a partner in Art House, Inc., was the purchaser (letter from Macbeth Gallery to Clarke, 29 May 1922; correspondence files, Macbeth Gallery Papers, AAA).

[4] The name of the seller and the date of purchase, 27 May 1922, are recorded in a copy of Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Collected by Thomas B. Clarke, Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928, annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library). The date is the same as the purchase of the painting by Art House, Inc., showing that paintings acquired by the dealership often went immediately into Clarke's own collection.

Exhibition History

1923
Exhibition of Portraits by Early American Portrait Painters, The Union League Club, 1923, no. 21.
1926
A Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Early American Portrait Painters, The Century Association, New York, 1926, no. 13.
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.
1939
Historical American Paintings, Department of Fine Arts, Golden Gate International Exhibition, San Francisco, 1939, no. 26
1943
American Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1943.
1947
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1947.
1947
Early American Portraits and Silver [Golden Jubilee of the Colonial Dames of America], J. B. Speed Memorial Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, 1947, no cat.
1948
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1948.
1949
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1949.
1950
The Face of American History, Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina, 1950, no. 22.
1951
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1951.
1951
American Portraits from the National Gallery of Art, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1951, no. 9 (organized by the Atlanta Art Association).
1952
[Opening exhibition], Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1952, no. cat.
1952
[Opening exhibition of new art gallery], Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Lynchburg, Virginia, 1952-1953, no cat.
1952
Opening Exhibition of The George Thomas Hunter Gallery of Art, Chattanooga Art Association, Tennessee, 1952, unnumbered.
1953
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1953.
1955
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1955.
1956
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1956.
1975
The World of Franklin and Jefferson, traveling exhibition circulated by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration, 6 venues (Paris, Warsaw, London, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles), 1975-1977, not included in cat.
1977
Loan for display with permanent collection, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 1977-1979.

Bibliography

1881
Bolton, Robert. A History of the Several Towns, Manors, and Patents of the County of Westchester from its first Settlement to the Present Time. 2 vols. New York, 1881: 2:484.
1906
Spooner, W. W. "The Morris Family of Morrisania." American Historical Magazine 1 (1906): repro. opp. 136.
1923
Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. "John Wollaston's Portrait of Mary Walton Morris." Art in America 11, no. 6 (October 1923): repro. 331, 333-334.
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.
1931
Bolton, Theodore, and Harry Lorin Binsse. "Wollaston, An Early American Portrait Manufacturer" The Antiquarian 16 (June 1931): 52.
1932
Sherman 1932, 37.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 124, repro.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 261, repro.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 383, 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: 358-360, color repro. 359.

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