Dr. James Hall, 1857

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 76.5 x 63.3 cm (30 1/8 x 24 15/16 in.)

framed: 104.8 x 92.1 x 11.4 cm (41 1/4 x 36 1/4 x 4 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1947.17.56

Artists / Makers

Daniel Huntington (artist) American, 1816 - 1906

Image Use

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Provenance

The artist, New York. (sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, 26 November 1920, no. 91); Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[1] 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] The name of the auction house and the date of the 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 records and in NGA library).

Associated Names

American Art Association
Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Huntington, Daniel
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.

Exhibition History

1921: Exhibition of Paintings by Early American Portrait Painters, The Union League Club, New York, December 1921, no. 19.

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 James Hall.

1967: Loan for display with permanent collection, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1967-2000.

1972: The Lazzaroni: Science and Scientists in Mid-Nineteenth Century America, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1972, p. 71.

Technical Summary

The support is a medium-weight, plain-weave fabric. The painting remains unlined and is attached with tacks to the original four-member, half-mitered half-slip-joined stretcher. Stenciled on the reverse of the fabric is "Williams, Stevens, Williams & Co.... 353 Broadway New York." The tan-colored ground is thin and smooth. The paint was largely applied with a wet-into-wet technique in fairly free strokes. The painting is in fair condition, with little inpainting. There are minor tears scattered in the tacking edges. A larger mended tear, approximately 5.7 cm in length, is located at upper right. Throughout the surface there is a fine crackle pattern. The varnish is uneven and has become extremely discolored.

Bibliography

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.

1952: Rutledge and Lane 1952, 123.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 70, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 179, repro.

1987: Earth Sciences History 6, no. 1 (1987): repro. 1.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 208, repro.

1992: Romm, Sharon. The Changing Face of Beauty. St. Louis, 1992: 303, repro.

1996: Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 334-337, repro.