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Possibly British 18th Century

Portrait of a Gentleman, c. 1720/1740

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 76.2 x 63.2 cm (30 x 24 7/8 in.)

framed: 87 x 74.9 x 4.4 cm (34 1/4 x 29 1/2 x 1 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1947.17.88

Artists / Makers

British 18th Century (painter)

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

falsely inscribed, reverse of lining canvas: 50 / PORTRAIT OF MY FRIEND SMIBERT / DRAWN BY P. PELHAM. / JAHLEEL BRENTON / COPIED FROM THE ORIGINAL INSCRIPTION / ON THE BACK OF THIS PICTURE BY / J. OLIVER / LINER / NEW YORK

Provenance

(Rose M. [Mrs. Augustus] de Forest, New York); sold 7 January 1922 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York, as a portrait of John Smibert by Peter Pelham;[1] sold by Clarke's executors 1935 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); purchased 29 January 1936, as part of the Clarke collection, by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1947 to NGA.

[1] According to 1928 Clarke exhibition catalogue annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library). The provenance from Jahleel Brenton, a friend of the supposed sitter, supplied by the dealer, de Forest, cannot be verified. See William P. Campbell, memorandum, 18 November 1965, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
de Forest, Rose M.

Exhibition History

1922: Exhibition of Portraits by Early American Artists, The Union League Club, New York, March 1922, no. 10, as John Smibert by Peter Pelham.

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 John Smibert by Peter Pelham.

1943: New England Painting, 1700-1775, Worcester Art Museum, 1943, no cat.

Technical Summary

The medium-weight canvas is plain woven; it has been lined. The ground is light brown, thinly applied. The composition is oval in format; the area outside the broad band of paint defining the oval is painted in dark brown. The painting is executed thinly and fluidly. There is retouching along the circumference of the oval and minimally in the sitter's face and hair. The natural resin varnish has discolored yellow slightly.

Bibliography

1928: Cuthbert, Lee. "The Thomas B. Clarke Collection of Early American Portraits." American Magazine of Art 19 (1928): 304, repro. 294.

1932: Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. Early American Painting. New York and London, 1932: 17.

1950: Foote, Henry Wilder. John Smibert. Cambridge, Mass., 1950: 235-237.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 160, repro., as Portrait of a Man by American (?).

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 308, as Portrait of a Man by Unknown [Formerly Considered American].

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 412, repro., as Portrait of a Man by Unknown Nationality 18th Century.

1992: Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 311-312, repro. 311.