Portrait of a Gentleman

c. 1740/1750

British 18th Century

Attributed to

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 127 x 101.7 cm (50 x 40 1/16 in.)
    framed: 150.5 x 125.7 x 4.4 cm (59 1/4 x 49 1/2 x 1 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1947.17.49

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

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Rose M. [Mrs. Augustus] de Forest, New York); sold 29 September 1930 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York, as a portrait of Judge Foster Hutchinson by Robert Feke;[1] sold by Clarke's executors to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), from whom it was purchased 29 January 1936, as part of the Clarke collection, by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift to NGA, 1947.
[1] According to 1928 Clarke exhibition catalogue annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library). The provenance from the Trowbridge family of Massachusetts, supplied by the dealer, de Forest, has been shown by archival research to be spurious. Clifford K. Shipton, letter, 6 September 1949, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1930

  • Foote, Henry Wilder. Robert Feke, Colonial Portrait Painter. Cambridge, Mass., 1930: supplementary note between x and xi.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 166, repro., as Portrait of a Man.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 46, repro., as Portrait of a Man.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 308, as Portrait of a Man by Unknown [Formerly Considered American].

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 20, repro.

1992

  • Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 297-298, repro. 298.

Inscriptions

falsely signed and dated, lower left in red paint: R.F. Pinx / 1748.

Wikidata ID

Q20177931

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