The Artist's Brother

c. 1840

Alvan Clark

Artist, American, 1804 - 1887

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 69.5 x 56.5 cm (27 3/8 x 22 1/4 in.)
    framed: 87.3 x 74.3 x 8.3 cm (34 3/8 x 29 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1947.17.30

Media for this artwork is unavailable and the object is not on view. See artworks now on view

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Caroline Amelia Eastman, granddaughter of the artist, Cambridge, Massachusetts; her sister, Elizabeth Willard Grogan, Cambridge;[1] sold 1919 to Francis Hill Bigelow, Cambridge;[2] (his sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, 17 January 1924, no. 29);[3] Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York; 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] Letter from Alvan Clark Eastman (son of Caroline Amelia Eastman), 24 September 1952 (in NGA curatorial files), identifies the sitter as Barnabas Clark, states that the portrait hung for a number of years in his mother's home, and remarks that it was sold by Grogan during his mother's lifetime.
[2] A statement signed by Elizabeth W. Grogan and addressed to "Mr. Bigelow" (in NGA curatorial files) identifies the sitter as Barnabas Clark. The statement is inscribed in another hand, "Cambridge Mar 10, 1919."
[3] Although the 1924 Anderson Galleries catalogue (Colonial Furniture, The superb Collection of Mr. Francis Hill Bigelow of Cambridge, Mass.) gives the date as 17 January. 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).lists the auction date as 18 January.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1924

  • Exhibition of the Earliest Known Portraits of Americans by Painters of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, The Union League Club, New York, March 1924, no. 13, as Barnabus Clark.

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 Barnabus Clark.

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, as Barnabus Clark.

1952

  • Rutledge and Lane 1952, 116.

1968

  • Warner, Deborah Jean. Alvan Clark & Sons, Artists in Optics. Washington, 1968: 115.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 42, repro., as Barnabus Clark.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 131, repro., as Barnabus Clark.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 142, repro., as Barnabus Clark.

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: 69-71, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20186528

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