William Thornton
1804
Painter, American, 1755 - 1828
West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G41-A
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 73.2 x 61.9 cm (28 13/16 x 24 3/8 in.)
framed: 89.9 x 77.8 x 10.6 cm (35 3/8 x 30 5/8 x 4 3/16 in.) -
Accession
1942.8.25
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Bequeathed by the sitter's wife, Anna Maria Brodeau Thornton [d. 1865], Washington, D.C., to her step-niece, Adelaide Thomason Talbot [Mrs. Isham Talbot, 1799/1800-1873], Washington, D.C.;[1] her daughter, Mary Louisa Talbot, Kentucky.[2] Virginia Collins Miller [Mrs. Thomas Miller, 1809-1892], Washington, D.C.;[3] her daughter, Anna Thornton Miller Murray [Mrs. Sterling Murray, 1836-1917], Leesburg, Va.[4] Sold 4 January 1922 on behalf of an unidentified descendant by (Mary H. Sully, Brooklyn, New York) to (Art House, Inc., New York);[5] Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York; 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 1942 to NGA.
[1] Mrs. Thornton's will, dated June 1855 (Office of Public Records, Washington, D.C. lists the "Portraits by Stuart to Mrs. Talbot" (copy, NGA curatorial file). Adelaide Talbot was the daughter of James B. Thomason, William Thornton's step-brother, and became the third wife of Isham Talbot, United States senator from Kentucky (1815-1819 and 1820-1825); Anna Maria Brodeau Thornton, "History and Life od Dr. William Thornton," unpublished manuscript, 1828, unpaginated, Thornton Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
[2] George C. Mason, The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart, New York, 1879, 269; Museum of Fine Arts, "Portraits Painted by Stuart...taken from Mason's Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart." Exhibition of Portraits Painted by Gilbert Stuart, Boston, 1880, 58, no 614; letter of 4 June 1914 from Anna T. Murray to Charles Henry Hart (NGA curatorial file).
[3] Anna T. Murray to Charles Henry Hart, 4 June 1914; Virginia Miller was the wife of Dr. Thomas Miller, owner of the Thornton home on F Street, N.W., at the time of Mrs. Thornton's death (obituary of Anna M. Thornton, Daily National Intelligencer, 18 August 1865). How and when Mrs. Miller acquired the portraits is unknown. For Mrs. Miller's dates see her obituary in the (Washington) Evening Star, 6 June 1892.
[4] Letter of 4 June 1914 from Murray to Hart; Mrs. Murray, who was named after Mrs. Thornton, left her belongings to her two sisters, Virginia Miller and Sally Fendall, "asking them to dispose of them in a proper manner, after my debts are paid, making gifts of remembrance to the special friends whom I love" (copy of will, which was filed 28 November 1917; Circuit Court of Loudoun County, Leesburg, Virginia).
[5] Receipt dated 4 January 1922, signed by Mary H. Sully (NGA curatorial file). Art House, Inc., was founded by Thomas B. Clarke in 1891; from 1919 to 1931 Thomas B. Clarke, Jr., Charles X. Harris, Alice T. Bay, and Clarence J. Dearden owned the firm. Mary Sully and her colleague A.E. Rueff provided Clarke with the provenance of the portraits.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1922
Portraits Painted in the United States by Early American Artists, The Union League Club, New York, February 1922, 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.
1943
American Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1943.
Thomas Jefferson Bicentennial Exhibition, 1743-1943, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1943, no. 33.
1944
Gilbert Stuart: Portraits Lent by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1944-1945, no. 16
1947
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1947.
1948
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1948.
1949
From Colony to Nation, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1949, no. 110
1950
Makers of History in Washington 1800-1950 [An Exhibition Celebrating the Sesquicentennial of the Establishment of the Federal Government in Washington], National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1950, no. 130, repro.
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1950.
1951
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1951.
1952
Woodlawn Plantation, Woodlawn, Virginia, 1952, no cat.
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.
Famous Americans, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, Maryland, 1955, no cat.
1956
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1956.
1960
American Painters of the South, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1960, no. 31
1971
Extended loan for use by The Octagon House, Washington, D.C., 1971-1983.
1983
The Capitol Image: Painters in Washington 1800-1915, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., 1983-1984, no. 2
1984
Extended loan for use by The Octagon House, Washington, D.C., 1984-1992.
2009
Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village: The Creation of an Architectural Masterpiece, 1817-1824, University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville, 2009-2010, not in catalogue.
2012
1812: A Nation Emerges, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, 2012-2013, no. 68, repro.
Bibliography
n.d.
Thornton, Anna Maria. Diaries, 1793-1863. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Thornton, Anna Maria. "History and Life of Dr. William Thornton." William Thornton Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., n.d.
1879
Mason, George C. The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart. New York, 1879: 269.
1880
"Portraits Painted by Stuart...taken from Mason's Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart." In Exhibition of Portraits Painted by Gilbert Stuart. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1880: 58, no. 614.
1914
Clark, Allen C. Life and Letters of Dolly Madison. Washington, D.C., 1914: 73, 472-473, repro. opp. 142.
1915
Clark, Allen C. "Dr. and Mrs. William Thornton." Records of the Columbia Historical Society 18 (1915): 144-208, repro. opp. 144.
1926
Park 1926, 752-753, no. 839, 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.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 106, repro.
1971
Nicholson, Arnold. "Dr. Thornton, Who Practiced Everything But Medicine." Smithsonian 2 (April 1971): color repro. 75.
1973
Mount, Charles Merrill. "Gilbert Stuart in Washington; with a Catalogue of His Portraits Painted between December 1803 and July 1805." Records of the Columbia Historical Society of Washington, D.C. 48 (1973): 91, repro. 92, 127.
1976
Stearns, Elinor and David N. Yerkes. William Thornton: A Renaissance Man in the Federal City. Washington, D.C., 1976: repro. 39.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 235, repro.
1981
Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 67, repro. 68.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 352, 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: 240-243, repro. 242.
2004
Barratt, Carrie Rebora, and Ellen G. Miles. Gilbert Stuart. Exh. cat. Met. Mus. of Art, New York; Natl. Gal. of Art, Washington, D.C. (for the Natl. Port. Gal.). New York, New Haven, and London, 2004: 153, 160, 239, 254, 258-260, 264, 285, fig. 144.
Wikidata ID
Q20181903