The Death of the Earl of Chatham
1779
Painter, American, 1738 - 1815
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 52.7 x 64.2 cm (20 3/4 x 25 1/4 in.)
framed: 79.7 x 91.6 x 6.7 cm (31 3/8 x 36 1/16 x 2 5/8 in.) -
Accession
1947.15.1
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Possibly (Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 23 May 1865, no. 130, bought in).[1] (Henry Graves & Co., London).[2] Susan Greene Amory Dexter [Mrs. Franklin Gordon Dexter, 1840-1924], Boston, the artist's great-granddaughter;[3] her son, Gordon Dexter [1864-1937], Boston;[4] his widow, Isabella Hunnewell Dexter [c. 1871-1968], Boston;[5] gift 1947 to NGA.
[1] Catalogue of a valuable Assemblage of Chiefly Modern Pictures, and Drawings and Engravings and some capital copies from celebrated Italian Pictures: which will be sold by Auction ... on Tuesday, May 23, 1865, 9; Graves 1918, 1:149. According to Christie's records, the consignor was W. Bettle, 195, Bishopsgate, London; Jeremy Rex-Parkes, archivist, letter, 2 August 1991, in NGA curatorial files; the painting was bought in. Jules David Prown, John Singleton Copley 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), 2:438, incorrectly stated that lot 130 was purchased by James Anderdon, who in fact bought his two sketches at the H. Scott Trimmer sale (Christie's, 17 March 1860, lot 31) and the Lyndhurst sale (Christie's, 5 March 1864, lot 70). Those sketches are now owned by the Tate Gallery, London. Frank W. Bayley, A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley (Boston, 1910), 34, erroneously claimed that the National Gallery's sketch was from the Lyndhurst sale. [2] A printed label of Henry Graves & Co., 6 Pall Mall, London, inscribed with the number 765, is attached to the stretcher. Graves [1806-1892] was a dealer and print publisher in London from 1852; see Fritz Lugt, Les Marques de collections de dessins et d'estampes (Amsterdam, 1921), 195, 561; Supplément (The Hague, 1956), 160. His ownership of the painting is not otherwise documented or dated. He was probably also the buyer of Copley's Baron Graham (1942.4.1) at auction in 1878 in London, a painting he apparently sold to the artist's granddaughter, Martha Babcock Amory. Both Baron Graham and this oil sketch were later owned by her daughter, Susan Greene Amory Dexter. [3] Bayley 1910, 34; Mrs. Dexter's birthdate is in John William Linzee, The Linzee Family of Great Britain and the United States of America (Boston, 1917), 2:781-782; her death date is in "Proceedings of the New England Historic Genealogical Society" (meeting of 1 April, 1925), The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 74 (July, 1925): 325. [4] Dexter is listed in Who Was Who in America, vol. 1, 1897-1942 (Chicago, 1966), 320. [5] Mrs. Dexter died at the age of 97 in New York City; obituary, The New York Times, 16 December 1968, 47.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1949
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1949.
1958
A Salute to William Pitt; An Exhibition of Art and Letters Honoring the First Earl of Chatham, Chatham College, Pittsburgh, 1958-1959, no. 8.
1965
John Singleton Copley, 1738-1815, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1965-1966, no. 71.
1968
The Age of Queen Charlotte 1744-1818, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1968, no. 3.
1976
The Eye of Thomas Jefferson, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1976, no. 66.
American Painting of the Revolutionary Period, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1976, no. 31.
1991
Zeichen der Freiheit: Das Bild der Republik in der Kunst des 16. bis 20. Jahrhunderts [Emblems of Liberty: The Image of the Republic in the Art of the 16th to the 20th Century], Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland, 1991, no. 318, repro.
1993
Picturing History: American Painting 1770-1930, The IBM Gallery, New York; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Dallas Museum of Art; Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, 1993-1994, no. 22, repro.
2000
The Revolutionary War: Founding the New Nation, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, 2000, unnumbered catalogue, repro.
Bibliography
1910
Bayley, Frank W. A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1910: 34.
1915
Bayley, Frank W. The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1915: 76.
1958
A Salute to William Pitt; An Exhibition of Art and Letters Honoring the First Earl of Chatham. Exh. cat. Chatham College, Pittsburgh, 1958-1959: no. 8.
1965
John Singleton Copley, 1738-1815. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1965-1966: no. 71.
1966
Prown, Jules David. John Singleton Copley, vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966, pp. 275-291, 437-439, fig. 404, no. 578.
1968
The Age of Queen Charlotte 1744-1818. Exh. cat. Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1968: no. 3.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 44, repro.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 394, fig. 568, color repro.
1976
American Painting of the Revolutionary Period. Exh. cat. Baltimore Museum of Art, 1976: no. 31. [See Maryland Heritage - Five Baltimore Institutions Celebrate the American Bicentennial Baltimore, 1976: 74, repro.
The Eye of Thomas Jefferson. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1976: no. 66.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 136, repro.
1981
Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 31, color repro. 47.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 390, no. 553, color repro.
1991
Zeichen der Freiheit; Das Bild der Republik in der Kunst des 16. bis 20. Jahrhunderts. Exh. cat. Kunstmuseum, Bern, 1991: no. 318.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 151, 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: 71-76, repro. 73.
Inscriptions
lower right: JSCopley / 1779
Wikidata ID
Q20178906