National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Elizabeth Gray Otis (Mrs. Samuel Alleyne Otis)
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

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Provenance

The sitter's 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] bequest 1980 to NGA.

[1] The presumed provenance is from the sitter to her son Harrison Gray Otis [1765-1848], father of James William Otis, first owner of record (1853); 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 those of the sitter's father Harrison Gray by Copley [NGA 1976.25.1] and husband Samuel Alleyne Otis by Gilbert Stuart [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] Clarence Winthrop Bowen, The History of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington as First President of the United States, (New York, 1892), 517; 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 Bolling 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. Thayer was the son of Harrison Gray Otis' sister Violet Otis Thayer. The painting was delivered to the Thayers on 22 June 1949 by the Museum of Fine Arts on the authority of William A. Otis. Thayer is in Who's Who in America, 38th ed. (Chicago, 1974), 3056, and The New York Times Biographical Service 15 (1984), 143. Mrs. Thayer's date of death is in the NGA curatorial file. A copy was painted for the donors by Adrian Lamb in 1976.

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. 45.
1892
Old State-House, Boston, 1892.
1896
Loan Collection of Portraits for the benefit of the Associated Charities and the North End Union, Copley Society, Boston, 1896, no. 52.
1910
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1910-1949.
1975
American Portraits by John Singleton Copley, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1975-1976, no. 14.

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. 45. [See Yarnall and Gerdts 1986, 1:828.]
1873
Perkins, Augustus Thorndike. A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1873: 91.
1892
Bowen, Clarence Winthrop. The History of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington as First President of the United States. New York, 1892: 517, repro. opp. 172.
1896
Loan Collection of Portraits for the benefit of the Associated Charities and the North End Union, Exh. cat. Copley Society, Boston, 1896: no. 52.
1915
Bayley, Frank W. The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1915: 190.
1924
Otis, William A. A Genealogical and Historical Memoir of the Otis Family in America. Chicago, 1924: 106, repro. 108.
1930
Bolton, Theodore and Harry Lorin Binsse. "John Singleton Copley." The Antiquarian 15 (December 1930): 118, owner erroneously listed as Robert H. Gardiner.
1938
Parker, Barbara Neville and Anne Bolling Wheeler. John Singleton Copley; American Portraits in Oil, Pastel, and Miniature with Biographical Sketches. Boston, 1938: 147-148, pl. 52.
1966
Prown, Jules David. John Singleton Copley. 2 vols. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1966: 1:40, 45, 111, 160-161, 225, fig. 137.
1969
Morison, Samuel Eliot. Harrison Gray Otis, 1765-1848, The Urbane Federalist. Boston, 1969: 6, 22-33, repro. 26.
1975
American Portraits by John Singleton Copley. Exh. cat. Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1975-1976: no. 14.
1981
Williams 1981, 22, color repro. 1.
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: 30-34, repro. 31.

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