Ebenezer Newhall, c. 1810

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 66 x 50.9 cm (26 x 20 1/16 in.)

framed: 77.5 x 62.2 x 4.4 cm (30 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1947.17.50

Artists / Makers

James Frothingham (artist) American, 1786 - 1864

Image Use

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Provenance

(The Art Shop, Boston);[1] sold 16 June 1924 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York; 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] The words "Art Shop Boston" and the date of the purchase by Clarke are recorded in a 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) annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library). According to Boston city directories, in 1924 the Art Shop was primarily engaged in photographic developing and printing.

Associated Names

Art Shop, The
Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.

Exhibition History

1926: A Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Early American Portrait Painters, Century Association, New York, 1926, no. 17.

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.

1968: Loan for display with the permanent collection, Boyhood Home of Robert E. Lee, Alexandria, Virginia, 1968-1986.

Technical Summary

The coarse, medium-weight, plain-weave fabric is unlined, and the four-member, butt-end and lap-joined stretcher is original to the painting. A freely brushed, whitish ground lies beneath paint layers of various thicknesses. The brushwork, while broad in the coat, tightens somewhat in the area of the face. There are minor paint losses throughout, and they (as well as the craquelure in the face) have been inpainted. The olive-colored background is somewhat abraded. The varnish has discolored.

Bibliography

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.

1952: Rutledge and Lane 1952, 120.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 60, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 162, repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 185, 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: 233-235, repro.