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Chester Harding

Self-Portrait, c. 1825

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 76.3 x 63.6 cm (30 1/16 x 25 1/16 in.)

framed: 105.1 x 92.4 x 9.5 cm (41 3/8 x 36 3/8 x 3 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1947.17.54

Artists / Makers

Chester Harding (artist) American, 1792 - 1866

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Anne Harding Arnd, granddaughter of the artist, Chicago; sold 27 June 1924 through (Art House, New York) to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[1] 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] Several letters from Arnd to A.T. Bay, of Art House, discussing the sale are preserved in NGA curatorial files. Arnd's name and the date of 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). See also letter of 26 May 1992 from Leah Lipton in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Arnd, Anne Harding
Art House, Inc.
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, The Century Association, New York, 1926, no. 14.

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.

1967: Loan for display with permanent collection, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1967-2000.

Technical Summary

The original support, a plain-weave fabric with irregular threads, has been lined. Slight cusping is present along all four cut edges. An off-white ground covers the surface and subsequent reddish-brown underpaint is visible in the background. Further paint layers were thinly applied and are somewhat transparent in appearance. The surface has suffered considerable abrasion; the areas of the hair and ears, as well as the outline of the jacket to the left, have been heavily overpainted. Further abrasion is located on the right side of the face and the eyebrows. Losses are found at the outer edges of the painting. The varnish has discolored slightly.

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.

1929: Harding, Chester. A Sketch of Chester Harding, Artist, Drawn by His Own Hand. Edited by Margaret E. White. New ed. Boston, 1929: repro. opp. 136.

1952: Rutledge and Lane 1952, 121.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 64, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 169, repro.

1981: Mackay-Smith, Alexander. The Race Horses of America, 1832-1872, Portraits and Other Paintings by Edward Troye. Saratoga Springs, New York, 1981: repro. 387.

1985: Lipton, Leah. A Truthful Likeness: Chester Harding and His Portraits. Exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville. Washington, D.C., 1985: 122, repro. 155.

1991: Rubin, Beth. "The Backwoodsman Newly Caught: The Missouri Apprencticeship of Portraitist Chester Harding." Gateway Heritage 12 (Summer 1991): color repro. 64.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 192, 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: 244-246, repro.