Thomas Alston
1826
Artist, American, born England, 1783 - 1872
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 76.7 x 63.7 cm (30 3/16 x 25 1/16 in.)
framed: 105.4 x 92.1 x 8.3 cm (41 1/2 x 36 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.) -
Accession
1947.17.108
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Commissioned 1825 by the sitter's father, Colonel John Ashe Alston [1783-1831]. Sarah McPherson Alston Middleton [Mrs. John Izard Middleton, 1807-1878], Middleton, South Carolina, sister of the sitter; her son, John Izard Middleton [b. 1834], Baltimore, Maryland; his nephew, John Izard Middleton [b. 1867], New York; purchased 24 October 1922 by Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York; 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.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1923
Exhibition of Portraits by Early American Portrait Painters, The Union League Club, New York, 1923, no. 11.
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.
1972
Extended loan for use in Chief Justice Rehnquist's chambers, 1986-2002.
1973
Thomas Sully 1783-1872, Bedford Gallery, Longwood College, Farmville, Virginia, 1973, no. 11.
1986
Extended loan for use by The Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1986-
Bibliography
1909
Hart 1909, no. 29, 20.
1921
Biddle, Edward, and Mantle Fielding. The Life and Works of Thomas Sully (1783-1872). Philadelphia, 1921: no. 32, 86.
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.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 110, repro.
1973
Flynn, Elizabeth L. Thomas Sully, 1783-1872. Exh. cat. Bedford College, Longwood College, Farmville, Virginia, 1973.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 240, repro.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 362, 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: 169-173, color repro.
Inscriptions
lower left: TS (in monogram) 1826.
Wikidata ID
Q20185516