Timothy Matlack
1802
Painter, American, 1778 - 1860
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 76.2 x 64.5 cm (30 x 25 3/8 in.)
framed: 99.7 x 87 x 7 cm (39 1/4 x 34 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.) -
Accession
1947.17.10
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Martha Bryan Schott Whitney [Mrs. Elisha D. Whitney, d. 1889], great-granddaughter of the sitter.[1] James S. Whitney.[2] (C. K. Johnson, Greenwich, Connecticut); sold 1 February 1923 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[3] 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 1947 to NGA.
[1] Catalogue of the Paintings and Other Objects of Interest Belonging to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelhia, 1872: 8, no. 9. Mrs. Whitney deposited the portrait at the society on November 11, 1872. She was Matlack's great-granddaughter; her mother Rebecca Bryan Schott (Mrs. James Schott, 1787-1871), was the daughter of Matlack's daughter Martha Matlack Bryan (Mrs. Guy Bryan, 1770-1814). (Information in NGA curatorial files).
[2] The evidence of James S. Whitney's ownership of the portrait is an undated handwritten label on the back of the frame, which reads: "Timothy Matlack/ Born Haddonfield NJ/ in the year 1730, and Died near/ Homesburg, Pa. April 15th 1829/ Deposited by James S. Whitney, and subject to his order." His relationship to Mrs. Whitney, the previous owner, is unknown. Her will (Philadelphia Register of Wills, W-1225-1889, and that of her husband (Philadelphia Register of Wills, W-64-1888) do not mention a James S. Whitney. Anna Wells Rutledge and James W. Lane, "110 Paintings in the Clarke Collection", unpublished typescript, NGA Department of Curatorial Records, 1952: 144, suggested that James S. Whitney was her brother (probably an error for "brother-in-law"). They note that he withdrew the portrait from the Historical Society sometime after 1907. The will of a James S. Whitney (died 1921; Philadelphia Register of Wills W-1045-1921) lists his address as 1627 Sumner Street, and indicates four children: Asa W., Thomas B., Anne Wakefield and Emma S. Whitney. Thomas was given all the "books, pictures, furniture and other articles" not specifically given to other children; however, the inventory lists only "5 oil paintings," and these are probably the "five marine paintings by James Hamilton" specifically given to his daughters.
[3] C. K. Johnson offered the portrait to Clarke in his letter of 27 January 1923 (NGA Clarke files). The date of purchase and name of the seller are recorded in an annotated copy of Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Collected by Thomas B. Clarke, Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928 (NGA Library).
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1872
Loan to display with permanent collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1872-c. 1907, as by Charles Willson Peale.
1924
Exhibition of the Earliest Known Portraits of Americans by Painters of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, The Union League Club, New York, March 1924, no. 4, as by Charles Willson Peale.
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, as by Charles Willson Peale.
1939
Historical American Paintings, Department of Art, Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, 1939, no. 17, as by Charles Willson Peale.
1948
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1948.
1949
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1949.
1950
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.
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.
The One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1955, no. 4, as by Charles Willson Peale.
1956
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1956.
1967
The Peale Family: Three Generations of American Artists, Detroit Institute of Arts; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, 1967, no. 147, as by Rembrandt Peale.
Bibliography
1872
Catalogue of the Paintings and Other Objects of Interest Belonging to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, 1872: 8, no. 9.
1924
Cortissoz, Royal. "The Field of Art." Scribner's Magazine 76 (1924): 112, repro. 110.
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, as by Charles Willson Peale.
1932
Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. Early American Painting. New York, 1932: 58.
1947
Sellers, Charles Coleman. The Artist of the Revolution: The Early Life of Charles Willson Peale. Hebron, Connecticut. Reprinted as Charles Willson Peale. Vol. 1: Early Life (1741-1790). Philadelphia, 1947: repro. opp. 208.
1952
Sellers, Charles Coleman. "Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale." Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 42 (1952), part I: 140, cat. 538, and fig. 103.
Rutledge and Lane 1952, 144-145.
1967
Elam, Charles H., ed. The Peale Family: Three Generations of American Artists. Exh. cat. Detroit Institute of Arts, 1967: 107, no.147, repro. 61.
1969
Sellers, Charles Coleman. "Charles Willson Peale with Patron and Populace." Transactions of the American Philosophical Society n.s. 59 (1969), part 3: 71, under SP88.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 88, repro.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 206, repro.
1983
Miller, Lillian B., Sidney Hart, and David C. Ward, eds. The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family. Vol. 2: Charles Willson Peale: The Artist as Museum Keeper, 1791-1810. New Haven, 1988: 285, fig. 50.
1992
Miller, Lillian B. In Pursuit of Fame: Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860. With essay by Carol Eaton Hevner. Exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1992: 49.
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 257, repro.
1998
Torchia, Robert Wilson, with Deborah Chotner and Ellen G. Miles. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1998: 72-75, repro.
Inscriptions
on paper under sitter's right hand: The P[ ] / 13
Wikidata ID
Q20181472