Dr. Samuel Boude
1755/1756
Painter, American, 1738 - 1820

Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 90.4 x 76.5 cm (35 9/16 x 30 1/8 in.)
framed: 107 x 92.2 x 5.4 cm (42 1/8 x 36 5/16 x 2 1/8 in.) -
Accession
1964.23.7
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
The sitter's descendant, Elizabeth F.G. Heistand [Mrs. Henry S. Heistand, b. 1872], Marietta, Pennsylvania;[1] sold December 1947 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); bought that same month by Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch;[2] gift 1964 to NGA.
[1] Loan Exhibition of Historical and Contemporary Portraits Illustrating the Evolution of Portraiture in Lancaster Country, Pennsylvania, under the auspices of The Iris Club and The Historical Society of Lancaster County...November 23, to December 13, 1912, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1912, 7; William Sawitzky, "The American Work of Benjamin West", Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 62, no. 4 (October 1938), 451. According to Sarah McCorkle Case, Bellmont, 1726 - Mt. Bethel, 1929, Columbia, Pennsylvania?, 1929?, 19, this portrait and that of Mrs. Boude hung for many years at "Mt. Bethel," the Bethel family home in Columbia, Pennsylvania. Case recounts two family stories about the portraits: that they were recovered from a tavern, and that the damage to the eyes was caused by a bad-tempered child.
[2] Letter from Melissa De Medeiros, librarian, M. Knoedler & Co., 30 October 1989, in NGA curatorial files.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1912
Loan Exhibition of Historical and Contemporary Portraits Illustrating the Evolution of Portraiture in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, The Iris Club and the Historical Society of Lancaster County, Lancaster, 1912, no. 24
1948
American Paintings of the 18th and Early 19th Century in Our Current Collection, M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1948, no. 10a
1957
American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1957, no. 12
1958
American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Springfield Art Museum, Missouri, 1958, no cat.
1976
John Singleton Copley 1738-1815, Gilbert Stuart 1755-1828, Benjamin West 1738-1820 in America & England, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1976, no. 2
2018
Es war einmal in Amerika: 300 Jahre US-Amerikanische Kunst [Once Upon a Time in America: Three Centuries of US-American Art], Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, 2018-2019, no. 8, repro.
Bibliography
1929
Case, Sarah McCorkle. Bellmont, 1726 - Mt. Bethel, 1929. Columbia, Pennsylvania (?), 1929 (?): 18-20.
1938
Sawitzky, William. "The American Work of Benjamin West." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 62, no. 4 (October 1938): 437, 451 (11), repro.
1952
Flexner, James Thomas. "Benjamin West's American Neo-Classicism." New-York Historical Society Quarterly 36 (1952): 24-25.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 120, repro.
1976
John Singleton Copley 1738-1815, Gilbert Stuart 1755-1828, Benjamin West 1738-1820 in America and England. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1976: color repro. 14, 20, no. 2.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 255, repro.
1981
Dallett, Francis James. "The Inter-Colonial Grimstone Boude and his Family." The Genealogist 2 (1981): no. 1: 92-94, repro.
1986
Von Erffa and Staley 1986, 494, no. 596, repro.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 376, 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: 317, 320, repro. 318.
Wikidata ID
Q20178089