The Grave of William Penn
c. 1847/1848
Artist, American, 1780 - 1849
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 60.4 x 75.5 cm (23 3/4 x 29 3/4 in.)
framed: 81.4 x 96.5 cm (32 1/16 x 38 in.) -
Accession
1980.62.12
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Richard Price, Philadelphia, or Joshua Longstreth, Price's father-in-law.[1] Sold by Miss Marian Beans, a descendant, to (Robert Carlen, Philadelphia);[2] sold 1944 to (Edith Gregor Halpert, Downtown Gallery, New York); sold 1944 to (M. Knoedler and Co., New York); sold 1944 to Joseph Katz, New York; sold 1947 to (M. Knoedler and Co., New York); sold 1947 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Pokety Farms, Cambridge, Maryland; bequest 1980 to NGA.
[1] Eleanor Price Mather, letter of 14 January 1982, in NGA curatorial files, states that this is the only Grave of William Penn without an inscription on the reverse naming the original owner. A 10 January 1949 letter from Philadelphia art dealer Robert Carlen to Colonel Garbisch (in NGA curatorial files) refers to Richard Price as "a member of the family for whom he [Hicks] painted the Picture `Wm. Penn's Grave at Jordan's Metting in England' which is now in your collection." From this Mather feels that the original owner may have been Price or his father-in-law, Joshua Longstreth, since Hicks instructs Price to mention to his "father in law as he has a taste for farming & Cattle that there is a flock of sheep & cattle on the peace I allude to..." (Hick's undated letter to Price, owned by the Friends Historical Society of Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, as transcribed by Carlen for Garbisch in the 10 January 1949 letter; in NGA curatorial files).
[2] According to Carlen, in a letter of 3 July 1970 to Colonel Garbisch, in NGA curatorial files.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1960
Edward Hicks, 1780-1849, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, 1960, no. 32.
1985
American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Exh. cat. Traveling exh. by the International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, 1985-1987, no. 35, color repro. First venue: Museum of American Folk Art, New York.
1988
La Nascita di Una Nazione: Pittori americani dalla National Gallery of Art di Washington 1730-1880, Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, Bologna; Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna di Ca'Pesaro, Venice, 1988-1989, no. 35, repro.
A Little Bestiary: Naive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, 1988, no catalogue.
1999
The Kingdoms of Edward Hicks, 5 venues, shown only at the first two, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1999-2000, no. 81, fig. 158.
2010
American Naive Paintings from the Garbisch Collection at the National Gallery of Art, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, Virginia, 2010, no catalogue.
Bibliography
1951
Held, Julius. "Edward Hicks and the Tradition." The Art Quarterly 14 (Summer 1951): 122, 133, 136.
1952
Ford, Alice. Edward Hicks, Painter of the Peaceable Kingdom. Philadelphia, 1952: xv, 42, 105-107, 109, 119, 121, 152.
1975
Parry, Ellwood. "Edward Hicks and a Quaker Iconography." Arts Magazine 49 (June 1975): 94.
1983
Mather, Eleanore Price. Edward Hicks: His Peaceable Kingdoms and Other Paintings. Newark, Delaware, 1983: 189, no. 100.
1985
Ford, Alice. Edward Hicks, His Life and Art. New York, 1985: 228-229, color repro.
1992
Chotner, Deborah, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn. American Naive Paintings. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 191-193, color repro. 193.
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 202, repro.
Inscriptions
lower left: Grave of William Penn at Jordans in England with a view of the old / Meeting House & Grave-Yard, & J. J. Gurney with some Friends looking at the Grave.
Wikidata ID
Q20187832