Portrait of a Gentleman
c. 1770-1773
Painter, British, 1734 - 1797


West Building Main Floor, Gallery 59
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 128 x 102 cm (50 3/8 x 40 3/16 in.)
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Accession
1940.1.11
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
William Curzon [1836-1916], Lockington Hall, Derbyshire; purchased 1916, at the dispersal of the Curzon estate, by Mrs. Claire Marion Cox, London, as Richard, Earl Howe, by John Singleton Copley; consigned 1932 by Mrs. Cox to (The Hackett Galleries, New York); returned to Mrs. Cox and later consigned to (Mrs. Chambers Wood, New York), who sold it 1932 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[1] purchased May 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1940 to NGA.
[1] Knoedler's records give the early provenance (letter from Elizabeth Clare to NGA curator William Campbell, 5 November 1963, in NGA curatorial files). Clare quotes a letter from Mrs. Cox to Mrs. Wood, undated but presumably 1932, in which Mrs. Cox states that the 1916 dispersal "was a hurried executors' sale and few persons attended it."
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1932
Inaugural exhibition, Museum of the City of New York, 1932, no catalogue, as by Copley.
1933
The Opening Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1933, no. 1, as by Copley.
Bibliography
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 43, no. 497, as Richard, Earl Howe by John Singleton Copley.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 249, repro. 7, as Richard, Earl Howe by John Singleton Copley.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 130, repro., as Richard, Earl Howe, by John Singleton Copley.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 140, as Richard, Earl Howe.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 127, repro., as Richard, Earl Howe.
Nicolson, Benedict. Joseph Wright of Derby: Painter of Light. 2 vols. London, 1968: 1:36, 207; 2:pl. 90.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 166, repro., as Richard, Earl Howe (?).
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 376, repro., as Richard, Earl Howe (?).
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 530, color repro.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 307, as Richard, Earl Howe (?).
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 439, repro., as Richard, Earl Howe (?).
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: 342-344, repro. 343.
Wikidata ID
Q20178491