Portrait of a Man

c. 1810

American 19th Century

Associated Names
American 19th Century

Painter

The image depicts a man from the waist up. He stands slightly to the right but faces forward, making direct eye contact. The man has a fair complexion with a reddish hue on his cheeks and a broad face. His hair is short, dark brown, and receding from the forehead. He wears a dark double-breasted coat with large buttons and a white cravat around his neck. His right hand is visible holding onto what appears to be a walking stick or cane. In the background, there is a dark draped cloth on the left side, and beside this, the spine of a book, part of a small bookshelf, can be seen. The overall background is dark, emphasizing the figure in the portrait.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on wood

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 76.5 x 61.6 cm (30 1/8 x 24 1/4 in.)
    framed: 87.6 x 72.4 x 7 cm (34 1/2 x 28 1/2 x 2 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1947.17.44

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Rose M. de Forest [Mrs. Augustus de Forest], New York); purchased 15 January 1917 by Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York; (his sale, American Art Galleries, 7 January 1919, no. 20);[1] Charles A. Munn, New York; repurchased 1920 by Clarke; 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 portrait was listed in the sale catalogue, De Luxe Illstrated Catalogue of Early American Portraits Collected by Mr. Thomas B. Clarke, New York, 1919: no. 20.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

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 Samuel Stanhope Smith by Ralph Earl.

1968

  • Loan for display with the permanent collection, Boyhood Home of Robert E. Lee, Alexandria, Virginia, 1968-1986.

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 Samuel Stanhope Smith by Ralph Earl.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 144, repro.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 289, repro.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 419, repro.

1998

  • Torchia, Robert Wilson, with Deborah Chotner and Ellen G. Miles. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1998: 272-275, color repro.

Inscriptions

originally falsely signed and dated, lower left, now removed: R. Earl Pinx / 1798

Wikidata ID

Q20182963

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