John Peck, c. 1795

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 63.5 x 47.9 cm (25 x 18 7/8 in.)

framed: 81.9 x 66.3 x 7.6 cm (32 1/4 x 26 1/8 x 3 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1947.17.65

Artists / Makers

John Johnston (painter) American, c. 1753 - 1818

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Gift 1836/1838 of the sitter's brother-in-law, Edward Stow [c. 1768-1845], Boston, to his daughter, Caroline Adelaide Stow Hyatt [Mrs. George Hyatt, 1807-1893], Ithaca;[1] her niece, Ann Broadhurst Phillips, Boston; her niece, Adelaide Phillips Walton, Oakland, New Jersey, 1920;[2] (André E. Rueff, Brooklyn); sold 1921 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[3] 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 1947 to NGA.

[1] Certified typed copy of a memorandum signed by Edward Stow and dated Boston, 22 February 1836, provided by Adelaide Phillips Walton on 31 October 1921 (NGA curatorial files) (she owned the original, which is now unlocated). According to the memorandum, Stow also gave his daughter Gilbert Stuart's portrait of her mother, Ann Brewer Beck Stow (Jordan-Volpe Gallery, New York) and a miniature of himself (Yale University Art Gallery). The year 1836 on the certified copy may be an error. A transcript of the memorandum (Yale University Art Gallery) gives the year as 1838, which agrees with the date of of a second memorandum, by which Stow gave his portrait by Gilbert Stuart to his daughter Louisa Matilda Stow (see NGA 1942.8.23).

[2] Mrs. Walton provided this provenance in her notarized statement of 3 October 1921, see NGA curatorial files. Lawrence Park made a drawing of the portrait that summer, when it was in Mrs. Walton's collection (letter to Thomas B. Clarke, 15 October 1921, NGA curatorial files).

[3] The name of the seller and the date of purchase 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 files and in NGA library). Lawrence Park understood that Clarke bought the portrait "for the Brook" (letter, 13 January 1922, NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Hyatt, Caroline Adalaide Stow
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Phillips, Ann Broadhurst
Rueff, André E.
Stow, Edward
Walton, Adalaide Phillips

Exhibition History

1922: Exhibition of Portraits by Early American Artists, The Union League CLub, New York, March 1922, no. 3.

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

1922: Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. "John Johnston's Portrait of John Peck." Art in America 10, no. 6 (October 1922): 259-260, repro. opp. 260.

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.

1932: Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. Early American Painting. New York, 1932: 69, plate 30A opp. 120.

1933: Coburn, Frederick W. "The Johnstons of Boston. Part Two." Art in America 21, no. 4 (October 1933): 137, no. 32.

1952: Rutledge and Lane 1952, 129.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 74, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 184, repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 215, 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: 109-110, repro. 111.