Anna Maria Cumpston
c. 1790
Painter, American, 1767 - 1822
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 147 x 95.6 cm (57 7/8 x 37 5/8 in.)
framed: 157.5 x 104.9 x 5 cm (62 x 41 5/16 x 1 15/16 in.) -
Accession
1953.5.32
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Probably by descent from the sitter to her daughter, Emily Williams Cooper (Mrs. Colin Campbell Cooper), Philadelphia; probably her son, Colin Campbell Cooper (1856-1937), Philadelphia, or his sister, Emily, or his brothers, Samuel M. and Ned Cooper; (Victor Spark, New York, 1944); sold 1948 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch;[1] gift 1953 to NGA.
[1] A photograph of the painting in the Edgar Preston Richardson Papers, Archives of American Art, Washington, D.C., is inscribed "Victor Spark 1944." Spark described the previous owners of the painting as the sitter's direct descendants (letter of 4 March 1948, NGA curatorial file). Later he wrote that he bought the painting "in Philadelphia from a family with which Colin Campbell Cooper must have been closely connected as the house was filled with his works. I believe that the family's name was Cooper also." (letter of 18 October 1983, NGA curatorial file). Spark's papers, Archives of American Art, offer no information on the history of this painting. For information on Cooper and his relatives see James M. Hansen, An Exhibition of Paintings by Colin Campbell Cooper (Santa Barbara, 1981), unpaginated and The New York Times 7 November 1937, section 2, 9 (obituary).
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1968
American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Columbus Museum of Arts and Crafts, Columbus, Georgia, 1968-1969, no. 10.
1971
Extended loan for use by The Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1971-1981.
1981
Charles Peale Polk: 1767-1822, traveling exh., 1981-1982, 6, no. 10, color repro. (cat. by Linda Crocker Simmons). First venue: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington.
1989
Extended loan for use by Ambassador Maynard Glitman, U.S. Embassy residence, Brussels, Belgium, 1989-1991.
Bibliography
1968
American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch. Exh. cat. Columbus Museum of Arts and Crafts, Columbus, Georgia, 1968-1969: no. 10.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 90, repro.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 210, repro.
1981
Charles Peale Polk, 1767-1822, A Limner and His Likenesses. Exh. cat. Traveling Exh., 1981-1982: 25-26, no. 10, color repro.
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: 133-134, color repro. 135.
Inscriptions
center right, on pedestal: C. Polk
Wikidata ID
Q20179684