Luke White
c. 1787
Painter, American, 1755 - 1828
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 76.2 x 63.5 cm (30 x 25 in.)
framed: 95.6 x 82.9 cm (37 5/8 x 32 5/8 in.) -
Accession
1942.8.28
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
The sitter's daughter, Matilda White Massy [1799-1883], Killakee, County Dublin, Ireland, who married Hugh Hamon, 4th Baron Massy; their son, John Thomas William Hamon, 6th Baron Massy [1835-1915], Killakee, County Dublin Ireland;[1] sale of his estate at Killakee (J.H. North & Co., Dublin, 16 February 1916, no. 622); bought by T. K. Laidlaw, Castleknock, Ireland;[2] (T.H. Robinson, London); (M. Knoedler & Co., New York, October 1919);[3] purchased 11 December 1919 by Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[4] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection on 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] For the family genealogy see Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 104th ed., London, 1967, 1672. [2] The date of the sale appears in a cablegram from North & Co. in Dublin, dated 9 February 1916, to Charles Henry Hart in New York (typed copy, NGA curatorial file) and in a letter to Hart from Laidlaw, Castleknock, Ireland, dated 5 March 1916 (Charles Henry Hart Papers, Archives of American Art, Washington, D.C.). No catalogue for the sale has been located.
[3] Letter, 29 April 1989, from Melissa De Medeiros, librarian, M. Knoedler & Co., in NGA curatorial file.
[4] The name of the seller and the date of 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
Exhibition History
1922
Portraits Painted in Europe by Early American Artists, The Union League Club, New York, January 1922, no. 16.
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.
1940
Survey of American Painting, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1940, no. 59
1943
American Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1943.
1944
Gilbert Stuart: Portraits Lent by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1944-1945, no. 3
1947
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1947.
1948
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1948.
1949
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1949.
1950
The Face of American History, Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina, 1950, no. 10.
1951
American Portraits from the National Gallery of Art, High Museum of Art, 1951, no. 11 (organized by the Atlanta Art Association).
1952
[Opening exhibition of new art gallery], Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Lynchburg, Virginia, 1952-1953, no cat.
Opening Exhibition of The George Thomas Hunter Gallery of Art, Chattanooga Art Association, Tennessee, 1952, unnumbered.
[Opening exhibition], Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1952, no. cat.
1953
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1953.
1955
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1955.
1956
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1956.
1974
Extended loan for use by the Ambassador, U.S. Embassy residence, East Berlin, German Democratic Republic, 1974-1977.
1989
Extended loan for use by Ambassador Henry A. Catto, U.S. Embassy residence, London, England, 1989-1991.
1991
Extended loan for use by Ambassador Raymond G. H. Seitz, U.S. Embassy residence, London, England, 1991-1994.
1994
Extended loan for use by Ambassador William J. Crowe, Jr., U.S. Embassy residence, London, England, 1994-
2004
Barratt, Carrie Rebora, and Ellen G. Miles. Gilbert Stuart. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (for the National Portrait Gallery). New York, New Haven, and London, 2004: 76, 137, 193, fig. 47.
Bibliography
1836
Herbert, John Dowling. Irish Varieties. London, 1836: 235-236.
1926
Park 1926, 806-807, no. 902, repro.
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.
1964
Mount 1964, 123, 363.
1969
Watson, Ross. "Irish Portraits in American Collections." Quarterly Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society 12, no. 2 (April-June 1969): 40, repro. 47.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 108, repro.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 237, repro.
1981
Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 62, repro. 63.
1986
McLanathan 1986, repro. 64.
1990
Crean, Hugh R. Gilbert Stuart and the Politics of Fine Arts Patronage in Ireland, 1787-1793: A Social and Cultural Study. Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1990: 227, 266-267, 405 no. 84.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 346, 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: 177-179, repro. 178.
Wikidata ID
Q20179472