Portrait of a Gentleman
c. 1720/1740
Painter
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 76.2 x 63.2 cm (30 x 24 7/8 in.)
framed: 87 x 74.9 x 4.4 cm (34 1/4 x 29 1/2 x 1 3/4 in.) -
Accession
1947.17.88
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
(Rose M. [Mrs. Augustus] de Forest, New York); sold 7 January 1922 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York, as a portrait of John Smibert by Peter Pelham;[1] sold by Clarke's executors 1935 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); purchased 29 January 1936, as part of the Clarke collection, by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1947 to NGA.
[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 Jahleel Brenton, a friend of the supposed sitter, supplied by the dealer, de Forest, cannot be verified. See William P. Campbell, memorandum, 18 November 1965, in NGA curatorial files.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1922
Exhibition of Portraits by Early American Artists, The Union League Club, New York, March 1922, no. 10, as John Smibert by Peter Pelham.
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 John Smibert by Peter Pelham.
1943
New England Painting, 1700-1775, Worcester Art Museum, 1943, no cat.
Bibliography
1928
Cuthbert, Lee. "The Thomas B. Clarke Collection of Early American Portraits." American Magazine of Art 19 (1928): 304, repro. 294.
1932
Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. Early American Painting. New York and London, 1932: 17.
1950
Foote, Henry Wilder. John Smibert. Cambridge, Mass., 1950: 235-237.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 160, repro., as Portrait of a Man by American (?).
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: 412, repro., as Portrait of a Man by Unknown Nationality 18th Century.
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: 311-312, repro. 311.
Inscriptions
falsely inscribed, reverse of lining canvas: 50 / PORTRAIT OF MY FRIEND SMIBERT / DRAWN BY P. PELHAM. / JAHLEEL BRENTON / COPIED FROM THE ORIGINAL INSCRIPTION / ON THE BACK OF THIS PICTURE BY / J. OLIVER / LINER / NEW YORK
Wikidata ID
Q20177798