Sir John Dick
1783
Painter, American, 1755 - 1828
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 91.8 x 71.4 cm (36 1/8 x 28 1/8 in.)
framed: 109.9 x 89.5 x 6.4 cm (43 1/4 x 35 1/4 x 2 1/2 in.) -
Accession
1954.1.10
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Painted for Sir Alexander Dick, 3rd Baronet [1703-1785], Prestonfield, Scotland;[1] by descent to his great-grandson, Sir Robert Keith Alexander Dick-Cunyngham, 9th Baronet [1836-1897], Prestonfield, Scotland; his son, William Stewart Dick-Cunyngham, 10th Baronet [1871-1922], Prestonfield, Scotland; (T. H. Robinson, London, 1921); (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); purchased 14 October 1921 by Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[2] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection on 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1954 to NGA.
[1] On the baronets of Prestonfield see Mrs. J. Stewart Smith, The Grange of St. Giles, and the other Baronial Homes of the Dick-Lauder Family, Edinburgh, 1898, 126-136, and Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, Privy Council and Order of Precedence, 97th ed., London, 1939, 710-712.
[2] M. Knoedler & Co. purchased a joint share in the painting from T.H. Robinson, London, in June 1921 and sold the painting to Clarke in October, according to Knoedler librarian Melissa de Medeiros (letter, 5 June 1992, in NGA curatorial file). The name of the seller and the date of purchase are recorded in a copy of Portraits by Early American Paintings 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).
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1884
Scottish National Portraits, Edinburgh, 1884, no. 456
1922
Portraits Painted in Europe by Early American Artists, The Union League Club, New York, January 1922, 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.
1967
American Painting, Art Resources Traveler (Artmobile), Illinois, 1967-1968.
1970
Extended loan for use by the Ambassador, U.S. Embassy residence, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 1970-1974.
1974
Selected American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, University Center Gallery, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, 1974, no cat.
1976
Loan for display with permanent collection, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 1976-1982.
1986
Extended loan for use by Ambassador Ronald Lauder, U.S Embassy residence, Vienna, Austria, 1986-1990.
Bibliography
1897
Forbes, Mrs. Athol, ed. Curiosities of a Scots Charta Chest. Edinburgh, 1897: 308-316.
1898
Smith, Mrs. J. Stewart. The Grange of St. Giles, and the other Baronial Homes of the Dick-Lauder Family. Edinburgh, 1898: 126-136.
1913
Strickland, Walter G. A Dictionary of Irish Artists. 2 vols. Dublin and London, 1913: 2:414.
1914
Fielding, Mantle. "Paintings by Gilbert Stuart not mentioned in Mason's Life of Stuart." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 38 (1914): 321, no. 43.
1922
Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. "Current Comment: Exhibitions." Art in America 10, no. 3 (April 1922): 143-144.
1926
Park 1926, 287-288, no. 246, repro.
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.
1932
Whitley, William T. Gilbert Stuart. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1932: 10-11
1939
Morgan, John Hill. Gilbert Stuart and his Pupils. 1939. Reprint. New York, 1969: 13.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 102, repro.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 229, repro.
1986
McLanathan, Richard. Gilbert Stuart. New York, 1986, color repro. 50, 51.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 346, 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: 169-172, repro. 171.
Inscriptions
in a later hand, upper right: Sir John Dick of Braid, Bart / Knight of St. Anne of Russia. / Born 1719-Died 1804. / by Gilbert Stuart 1782.
Wikidata ID
Q20179263