National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Harrison Gray
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

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Provenance

The sitter's great-grandson, James William Otis [1800-1869], New York;[1] his son, William Church Otis [1831-1889], Nahant, Massachusetts;[2] his son, Harrison Gray Otis [1856-1915], Nahant and Needham, Massachusetts;[3] his son, William Alleyne Otis [b. 1895], Boston;[4] his cousin, Robert Helyer Thayer [1901 1984] and Virginia Pratt Thayer [Mrs. Robert Helyer Thayer, d. 1979], Washington, D.C.;[5] gift 1976 to NGA.

[1] The probable sequence of ownership was from the sitter to his daughter, Elizabeth Gray Otis to her son, Harrison Gray Otis [1765-1848], father of James William Otis, first owner of record; see William A. Otis, A Genealogical and Historical Memoir of the Otis Family in America (Chicago, 1924), 106, 141, 202. This portrait shares its provenance with Copley's Elizabeth Gray Otis (Mrs. Samuel Alleyne Otis) [NGA 1980.11.1] and Gilbert Stuart's Samuel Alleyne Otis [NGA 1980.11.2].

[2] Augustus Thorndike Perkins, A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley, (Boston, 1873), 68; for William's dates see Otis 1924, 341.

[3] Frank W. Bayley, The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley, (Boston, 1915), 123. For Harrison's dates and places of residence see Otis 1924, 495. Records in the registrar's office, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, show that the painting was owned from 1917 to 1926 by Robert H. Gardiner, Robert H. Gardiner, Jr., and William Tudor Gardiner (Jennifer Abel, letter, 14 November 1990, in NGA curatorial files), perhaps as trustees or executors of the estate of Harrison Gray Otis.

[4] Barbara Neville Parker and Anne B. Wheeler. John Singleton Copley: American Portraits in Oil, Pastel, and Miniature with Biographical Sketches, (Boston, 1938): 88; for William's birthdate see Otis 1924, 608.

[5] Otis 1924, 496. Robert Thayer's mother, Violet Otis Thayer, was Harrison Gray Otis's sister. The painting was delivered to Thayer by the Museum of Fine Arts on the authority of William A. Otis on 22 June 1949. For Thayer's dates see Who's Who in America, 38th ed. (Chicago, 1974), 3056, and The New York Times Biographical Service 15 (1984), 143. The date of Mrs. Thayer's death is in the NGA curatorial file. Adrian Lamb painted a copy of this portrait in 1976 for the donors.

Exhibition History

1854
The Washington Exhibition in aid of the New-York Gallery of the Fine Arts, at the American Art-Union Gallery, New York, 1854, no. 41.
1896
Loan Collection of Portraits for the Benefit of the Associated Charities and the North End Union, Copley Society, Boston, 1896, no. 53.
1910
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1910-1949.
1930
Loan Exhibition of One Hundred Colonial Portraits, Musuem of Fine Arts, Boston, 1930, no. 39.
1975
American Portraits by John Singleton Copley, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1975-1976, no. 32.
1989
Extended loan for use by Blair House, Washington, D.C., 1989-2004.

Bibliography

1854
The Washington Exhibition in aid of the New-York Gallery of the Fine Arts, at the American Art-Union Gallery, Exh. cat. New York, 1854: no. 41. [See Yarnall and Gerdts 1986, 1:827.]
1873
Perkins, Augustus Thorndike. A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1873: 68.
1896
Loan Collection of Portraits for the Benefit of the Associated Charities and the North End Union, Exh. cat. Copley Society, Boston, 1896: no. 53.
1910
Addison, Julia de Wolf. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Boston, 1910: 5; 2nd ed. Boston, 1924: 5.
1910
Bayley, Frank W. A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1910: 43.
1915
Bayley, Frank W. The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1915: 123.
1930
Bolton, Theodore and Harry Lorin Binsse. "John Singleton Copley." The Antiquarian 15 (December 1930): 116.
1930
Loan Exhibition of One Hundred Colonial Portraits. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1930: no. 39.
1930
Jones, Edward Alfred. The Loyalists of Massachusetts. London, 1930: 151-152, repro. opp. 146.
1932
Museum of Fine Arts. Selected Oil and Tempera Paintings & Three Pastels. Boston, 1932: unpaginated, repro.
1938
Parker, Barbara Neville and Anne Bolling Wheeler. John Singleton Copley: American Portraits in Oil, Pastel, and Miniature with Biographical Sketches. Boston, 1938: 87-88, pl. 65.
1966
Prown, Jules David. John Singleton Copley. 2 vols. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1966: 1:56-57, 106, 160-161, 216; 2:261.
1969
Morison, Samuel Eliot. Harrison Gray Otis, 1765-1848, The Urbane Federalist. Boston, 1969: 6, 17-30, repro. 20.
1975
American Portraits by John Singleton Copley. Exh. cat. Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1975-1976: unpaginated, no. 32, color repro.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 137, repro.
1981
Williams 1981, 22, repro.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 148, 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: 34-36, color repro. 35.

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