Provenance

Mrs. Francis Mulliken (Helen Rockwell) Adams [1877-1957], Stamford or Ridgefield, CT, by 1931; consigned 15 December 1931 to (Macbeth Gallery, New York); returned 30 January 1935 to Helen Rockwell Adams, Stamford or Ridgefield, CT. [1] Private collection, by c. 1952; sold c. 1952 to private collection; [2] (sale, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 21 April 1978, no. 5); purchased 21 April 1978 by (Paul Magriel [1906-1990], New York); purchased 24 April 1978 by Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia; bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to his wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon [1910-2014].
[1] A stock card from the Macbeth Gallery Records titled “Still life, Strawberries, Raphael Peale” indicates the owner as Mrs. Francis M. Adams with the address “46 Chesterfield Rd., Stamford or Ridgefield, CT” (Archives of American Art, Macbeth Gallery Records, Box 111, Folder 17: Pictures Unsold, P, 1892-ca. 1957, see copy in NGA curatorial file). On 23 June 1932, Macbeth Gallery informed Mrs. Adams that “[they] have not been able to do anything with [her] Peale still life…Why not try some of the antique dealers in Stamford, Ridgefield, or Litchfield?” (Archives of American Art, Macbeth Gallery Records, Box 6, Folder 48: A, Miscellaneous: Ad, 1907-1956, see copy in NGA curatorial file) The stock card indicates the painting was returned “1/30/35 to owner,” and the outgoing shipping ledger is addressed to “Rev. Franc[i]s [M.] Adams” (Archives of American Art, Macbeth Gallery Records, Box 110, Folder 11: Shipping Ledgers, Outgoing Express, 1933-1941, see copy in NGA curatorial file). According to the Lewiston Daily Sun on 26 July 1949, Rev. Francis Mulliken Adams was a “retired Episcopalian clergyman of Kingstree, S.C.” He was born 7 June 1871 in Ridgefield, CT and died 25 July 1949 in Lewiston, ME. He married Helen Rockwell on 7 June 1911.
[2] See correspondence from 6 March 1978 between Grete Meilman, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, and Edward H. Dwight from Archives of American Art, Edward H. Dwight Papers, Box 14: Peale Research, Correspondence (3 of 3), 1940s-1980s, copy in NGA curatorial file. Grete Meilman indicates that “[t]he present owner seems to recall that she got the painting from a ‘travelling Presbyterian Minister’? in Massachusetts around 1952.” It is unclear to whom “travelling Presbyterian Minister” refers.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1817

1828

Bibliography

1988

2014

Inscriptions

lower right: Raphaelle Peale 1816

Wikidata ID