National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Captain Charles Stewart
  • Overview
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

This dashing young captain was to become one of America's most famous naval commanders. In the summer of 1813, Charles Stewart took command of the Constitution. That frigate already had acquired her nickname of "Old Ironsides" when, during the War of 1812, a British cannonball had bounced off her sturdy oak hull. Since in their respectively long careers, neither ship nor man ever lost a battle, "Old Ironsides" came to identify both.

Portrayed at age thirty-three, the captain reveals his years of active duty by his vigorous stance, feet braced apart as though planted on a rolling deck -- an assertive, even swaggering, posture most unexpected in a formal portrait. His thumb aggressively presses down upon the desk's naval charts, and a world globe emerges beneath the tablecloth. The white, lower half of Stewart's uniform stands out against the shaded room, while a shaft of sunshine on the upper wall silhouettes his dark, navy coat and cocked elbow.

Captain Charles Stewart was Thomas Sully's second full-length portrait. Sully had emigrated from England to the United States when he was nine. Gilbert Stuart graciously allowed the young painter to observe him at work. Establishing himself as a Philadelphia portraitist, Sully saved enough money to spend nine months studying art in London in 1810.

Inscription

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Marks and Labels

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Provenance

The sitter's daughter, Delia Stewart Parnell; her son, Charles Stewart Parnell [1846-1891], Avondale, County Wicklow, Ireland; possibly his daughter, Mrs. Olivia Parnell, Laragh Castle, Glendalough, Rathdrim, County Wicklow, Ireland; acquired July 1916 by Marie Louise Tudor Garland, Boston, Massachusetts;[1] her daughter, Hope Garland Ingersoll [Mrs. W. Fitch Ingersoll], Boston;[2] (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); purchased 1947 by NGA.

[1] She was the granddaughter of Frederick Tudor (1783-1864), a brother of Stewart's wife Delia Tudor.

[2] She put the painting on long-term loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Selected Oil and Tempera Paintings & Three Pastels, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1932: n.p., illustrated the portrait and in the index it is listed as "Lent by Hope Garland Ingersoll 1924."

Exhibition History

1812
Second Annual Exhibition of The Society of Artists of the United States and the Pennsylvania Academy, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1812, no. 31.
1816
Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts..., Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1816, no. 101.
1922
Memorial Exhibition of Portraits by Thomas Sully, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1922, no. 155.
1924
Loan to display with permanent collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1924-at least 1932.
1948
Your Navy: Its Contribution to America From Colonial Days to World Leadership, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1948, unnumbered checklist.
1980
La Pintura de Los Estados Unidos de Museos de la Ciudad de Washington, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, 1980-1981, no. 6, color repro.
1987
Federal Philadelphia 1785-1825: The Athens of the Western World, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1987, no. 223.

Bibliography

1909
Hart 1909, no. 1606, 157.
1921
Biddle, Edward, and Mantle Fielding. The Life and Works of Thomas Sully (1783-1872). Philadelphia, 1921: no. 1646.
1922
Catalogue of the Memorial Exhibition of Portraits by Thomas Sully. Exh. cat. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1922: no. 155, 108.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 112, repro.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 244, repro.
1980
La pintura de los Estados Unidas de museos de la ciudad de Washington. Exh. cat. Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, 1980: 52, pl. 6.
1980
Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 13, 54, repro.
1981
Williams 1981, 87, color repro. 101.
1983
Brown, Milton W. One Hundred Masterpieces of American Painting from Public Collections in Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., 1983: 50, pl. 51.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 390, no. 558, color repro.
1988
Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 62, repro.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 359, repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 223, repro.
1998
Torchia, Robert Wilson, with Deborah Chotner and Ellen G. Miles. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1998: 139-143, color repro.

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