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Benjamin West

Dr. Samuel Boude, 1755/1756

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 90.4 x 76.5 cm (35 9/16 x 30 1/8 in.)

framed: 107 x 92.2 x 5.4 cm (42 1/8 x 36 5/16 x 2 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch

Accession Number

1964.23.7

Artists / Makers

Benjamin West (painter) American, 1738 - 1820

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

The sitter's descendant, Elizabeth F.G. Heistand [Mrs. Henry S. Heistand, b. 1872], Marietta, Pennsylvania;[1] sold December 1947 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); bought that same month by Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch;[2] gift 1964 to NGA.

[1] Loan Exhibition of Historical and Contemporary Portraits Illustrating the Evolution of Portraiture in Lancaster Country, Pennsylvania, under the auspices of The Iris Club and The Historical Society of Lancaster County...November 23, to December 13, 1912, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1912, 7; William Sawitzky, "The American Work of Benjamin West", Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 62, no. 4 (October 1938), 451. According to Sarah McCorkle Case, Bellmont, 1726 - Mt. Bethel, 1929, Columbia, Pennsylvania?, 1929?, 19, this portrait and that of Mrs. Boude hung for many years at "Mt. Bethel," the Bethel family home in Columbia, Pennsylvania. Case recounts two family stories about the portraits: that they were recovered from a tavern, and that the damage to the eyes was caused by a bad-tempered child.

[2] Letter from Melissa De Medeiros, librarian, M. Knoedler & Co., 30 October 1989, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Garbisch, Edgar William, Mr. and Mrs.
Heistand, Elizabeth F.G.
Knoedler & Company, M.

Exhibition History

1912: Loan Exhibition of Historical and Contemporary Portraits Illustrating the Evolution of Portraiture in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, The Iris Club and the Historical Society of Lancaster County, Lancaster, 1912, no. 24

1948: American Paintings of the 18th and Early 19th Century in Our Current Collection, M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1948, no. 10a

1957: American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1957, no. 12

1958: American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Springfield Art Museum, Missouri, 1958, no cat.

1976: John Singleton Copley 1738-1815, Gilbert Stuart 1755-1828, Benjamin West 1738-1820 in America & England, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1976, no. 2

2018: Es war einmal in Amerika: 300 Jahre US-Amerikanische Kunst [Once Upon a Time in America: Three Centuries of US-American Art], Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, 2018-2019.

Bibliography

1929: Case, Sarah McCorkle. Bellmont, 1726 - Mt. Bethel, 1929. Columbia, Pennsylvania (?), 1929 (?): 18-20.

1938: Sawitzky, William. "The American Work of Benjamin West." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 62, no. 4 (October 1938): 437, 451 (11), repro.

1952: Flexner, James Thomas. "Benjamin West's American Neo-Classicism." New-York Historical Society Quarterly 36 (1952): 24-25.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 120, repro.

1976: John Singleton Copley 1738-1815, Gilbert Stuart 1755-1828, Benjamin West 1738-1820 in America and England. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1976: color repro. 14, 20, no. 2.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 255, repro.

1981: Dallett, Francis James. "The Inter-Colonial Grimstone Boude and his Family." The Genealogist 2 (1981): no. 1: 92-94, repro.

1986: Von Erffa and Staley 1986, 494, no. 596, repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 376, 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: 317, 320, repro. 318.