General William Smallwood
1785/1788
Painter, American, 1730 - 1788
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 73.8 x 61.1 cm (29 1/16 x 24 1/16 in.)
framed: 93 x 80.7 x 10.2 cm (36 5/8 x 31 3/4 x 4 in.) -
Accession
1947.17.89
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
The sitter's nephew, William Truman Stoddert [1759-1793]; his son, John Truman Stoddert [1790-1870], Charles County, Maryland; his daughter, Elizabeth Stoddert Bowie [Mrs. Robert Bowie, Jr., 1826-c.1905], Charles County and Baltimore, Maryland;[1] sold 1892 to James A. Conner [d. 1921], Baltimore;[2] bequeathed to George D. Hall, Seattle, Washington.[3] J. Bannister Hall; purchased 1922 by Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[4] 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] After the death of her children, Mrs. Bowie moved to Baltimore, where she lived with her grandson Robert William Bowie Stoddert. She provided the provenance for the portrait in a statement given to Thomas G. Hull, Notary Public, Baltimore, on April 15, 1905 (copy owned by Thomas B. Clarke, curatorial file). She also stated that the sitter had commissioned the portrait for his mother, but this is unlikely since Mrs. Smallwood died in 1784. For biographical information on these owners see Walter Worthington Bowie, The Bowies and their Kindred (Washington, D.C., 1899), 204-206; Who Was Who in America; Historical Volume, 1607-1896, rev. ed. (Chicago, 1967), 580 (John Truman Stoddert); and Edward C. Papenfuse et. al., A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635-1789 (Baltimore, 1979), 2: 741 (William Smallwood). William Stoddert's dates were provided by the Society of the Cincinnati, Washington, D.C.; he was a founding member (Bryce Metcalf, Original Members and Other Officers eligible to the Society of the Cincinnati, 1783-1938 (Strasburg, VA, 1938), 299.
[2] A copy of the bill of sale dated 30 November 1892 was given to Thomas B. Clarke in 1922 (NGA curatorial file).
[3] Conner, who died on 29 May 1921, named his deceased wife's nephew George D. Hall as his heir (will filed with the Register of Wills, Baltimore, Maryland); the inventory of Conner's estate included a "Family Oil Portrait" valued at $5.00 and a "Lot of Pictures" valued at $25. Hall, of Seattle, Washington, is listed as a former owner of the painting in A Loan Exhibition of Portraits of Soldiers and Sailors in American Wars (Duveen Galleries, New York, 1945), 40.
[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). J. Bannister Hall, Jr. is listed as a lawyer in a 1922 Baltimore City directory; his relationship to George D. Hall is unknown.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1923
Exhibition of Portraits by Early American Portrait Painters, The Union League Club, New York, 1923, no. 4.
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.
1945
A Loan Exhibition of Portraits of Soldiers and Sailors in American Wars, Duveen Galleries, New York, 1945, no. 10.
1955
Famous Americans, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, Maryland, 1955, no cat.
1958
Smallwood Foundation, Inc., Faulkner, Maryland, September 1958.
1960
Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, April 1960.
1965
Loan for display with permanent collection, National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C., 1965-1989.
1975
Extended loan for display with the museum's collection, 1975-2004.
1979
Robert Edge Pine: A British Portrait Painter in America, 1784-1788, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, 1979-1980, no. 61.
Bibliography
1923
Exhibition of Portraits by Early American Portrait Painters. Exh. cat. The Union League Club, New York, 1923: no. 4.
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.
1945
A Loan Exhibition of Portraits of Soldiers and Sailors in American Wars. Exh. cat. Duveen Galleries, New York, 1945: no. 10.
1952
Sellers, Charles Coleman. Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale. Philadelphia, 1952: 12, 195, no. 800.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 90, repro.
1979
Stewart, Robert G. Robert Edge Pine: A British Portrait Painter in America, 1784-1788. Exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery, Washington, 1979: 59, 82-83, no. 61, repro.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 210, repro.
1981
Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 71, repro. 73.
1983
Miller, Lillian B., Sidney Hart, Toby A. Appel, and David C. Ward, eds. The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family. 3 vols. New Haven and London, 1983-1991: 1:495-496, 504-505.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 262, 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: 129-132, repro. 131.
Wikidata ID
Q20179318