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Frank Duveneck

William Gedney Bunce, c. 1877-1878

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 77.5 x 66 cm (30 1/2 x 26 in.)

framed: 100.3 x 90.2 cm (39 1/2 x 35 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1942.8.4

Artists / Makers

Frank Duveneck (artist) American, 1848 - 1919

Image Use

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Provenance

The sitter [1840-1916]; his neighbor, George Meyers, New York; Alfred M. Turner, New York, from c. 1894; sold 20 January 1919 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[1] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] A letter of 20 January 1919 from Thomas B. Clarke (in NGA curatorial files) states: "This morning I bought of the artist Alfred M. Turner . . . a portrait of Gedney Bunce, by Frank Duveneck. . . . A. M. Turner said that he had owned the portrait about twenty five years, and got it from George Meyers, a designer, who had a small apartment in the `Benedict' . . . his apartment being near or next to that of Gedney Bunce who had a studio in the same building." A letter from Turner to Clarke, dated 6 January 1919 (also in NGA curatorial files), states, "I have had in my possession for over twenty five years a portrait of Gedney Bunce."

Associated Names

Bunce, William Gedney
Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Meyers, George
Turner, Alfred M.

Exhibition History

1926: A Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Early American Portrait Painters, The Century Association, New York, 1926, no. 9.

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.

1938: Paintings by Frank Duveneck, 1848-1919, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1938, no. 34.

1943: American Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1943.

1953: American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1953.

1955: American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1955.

1956: American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1956.

1970: Two Centuries of American Portraits, University of Kentucky Art Gallery, Lexington; Paducah Art Gallery, Kentucky; J. B. Speed Museum of Art, Louisville, 1970, no cat.

1988: An American Painter Abroad: Frank Duveneck's European Years, Cincinnati Art Museum, 1987-1988, unnumbered.

1989: Loan for display with permanent collection, The Taft Museum, Cincinnati, 1989-1990.

Technical Summary

The support is a coarse, double-threaded, plain-weave fabric that was relined in 1946, hiding a colormen's stencil reading "Malerleinwand Fabrik / von / A. Schutzman / in / MÜNCHEN." The ground is moderately thick and off-white; above it is a thinner white layer that is possibly a second ground. The paint was applied in multiple layers, using a wet-into-wet technique, and without pronounced impasto or brushwork. There are scattered small losses of paint and ground throughout the right shoulder and to the left of the sitter's face, and fairly extensive traction crackle. The thick varnish has discolored.

Bibliography

1928: Barker, Virgil. "Portraiture in America before 1876." The Arts 13, no. 5 (May 1928): 286.

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.

1928: Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. "Frank Duveneck." Art in America 16 (February 1928): 97, repro.

1930: Sherman 1930, 61, repro. opp. 60.

1936: Exhibition of the Work of Frank Duveneck. Exh. cat. Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, 1936: 74.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 52, repro.

1970: Booth, Billy Ray. "A Survey of Portraiture and Figure Paintings by Frank Duveneck." Ph.D. diss., University of Georgia, 1970: xiii, 118-120, repro.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 555, no. 844, color repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 148, repro.

1980: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 16, 132, repro.

1981: Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 179, repro.

1987: Quick, Michael. An American Painter Abroad: Frank Duveneck's European Years. Exh. cat. Cincinnati Art Musuem, Cincinnati, 1987: 41, 103, fig. 25.

1988: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 19.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 164, repro.

1996: Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 154-156, color repro.