Portrait of a Gentleman, c. 1695/1710

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 74.5 x 64 cm (29 5/16 x 25 3/16 in.)

framed: 94 x 81.9 x 4.1 cm (37 x 32 1/4 x 1 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1947.17.64

Artists / Makers

British 17th Century (painter)

British 18th Century (painter)

Image Use

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Inscription

falsely signed and dated, lower right: Henrietta Johnston Fecit Ao.1718

Provenance

(Rose M. [Mrs. Augustus] de Forest, New York); sold 29 November 1926 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York, as a portrait of Robert Johnson by Henrietta Johnston;[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 Colonel John Moore of South Carolina and New York, supplied by the dealer, de Forest, cannot be verified. See James W. Lane, memorandum of 21 April 1951, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
de Forest, Rose M.

Exhibition History

1928: A Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Early American Portrait Painters, The Century Association, New York, 1928, no. 12, as Robert Johnson by Henrietta Johnston.

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 Robert Johnson by Henrietta Johnston.

Technical Summary

The medium-weight canvas is plain woven; it has been mounted onto wooden composition board. The ground appears to be white. There is possibly a reddish-brown imprimatura. The composition is oval in format; the area outside the oval is painted in light brown. The painting is executed fairly thinly with virtually no impasto. The paint surface has been abraded in the darks, which are extensively repainted; a large tear in the lower right quadrant has been repaired. A fringed muslin cravat, now very abraded, has been painted over the lace cravat. The thick, natural resin varnish has discolored yellow to a moderate degree.

Bibliography

1927: Willis, Eola. "The First Woman Painter in America." International Studio 87 (July 1927): 13.

1928: Willis, Eola. "Henrietta Johnston, South Carolina Pastellist." Antiquarian 11 (1928): 46, repro.

1932: Sherman Frederick Fairchild. Early American Painting. New York and London, 1932: 14.

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: 308, as Portrait of a Man by Unknown [Formerly Considered American].

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 411, 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: 292-293, repro. 293.