Lovice Corbett Whittemore (Mrs. Thomas Whittemore), 1845

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 76.2 x 63.5 cm (30 x 25 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Thomas Whittemore

Accession Number

1950.8.2

Artists / Makers

Alvan Clark (artist) American, 1804 - 1887

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

on reverse of original canvas, now concealed by lining (photograph in NGA curatorial file): AEt 43 / 1845

Provenance

The sitter's husband, Thomas Whittemore [1800-1861]; probably the sitter [d. 1882]; by descent to her grandson, Thomas Whittemore [1871-1950];[1] gift 1950 to NGA.

[1] Following the death of her husband, Thomas Whittemore, in 1861, both the portrait and its pendant (NGA 1950.8.1, Thomas Whittemore) presumably remained in the possession of the sitter until her death in 1882, at which point they likely passed to her only surviving son, Joseph Whittemore [d. 1894] and subsequently to his wife, Elizabeth Whittemore [d. 1904] (who, in her husband's will, docket no. 37300, Middlesex County [Massachusetts] Probate Records, was named the recipient of all his personal property). Their sole surviving child was Thomas, the donor of both pictures to the NGA. See B.B. Whittemore, A Genealogy of Several Branches of the Whittemore Family, Nashua, New Hampshire, 1893: 27.

Associated Names

Whittemore, Lovice Corbett
Whittemore, Thomas
Whittemore, Thomas

Technical Summary

The finely woven, plain-weave support has been lined. Cusping along all four cut edges suggests that the image has not been reduced. The white ground is thick and smooth, and subsequent paint was applied rapidly and thickly, except in the dark dress and shadowed areas, where the paint is thinner. X-radiography indicates several changes: in the profile of the bonnet, in the right sleeve, and in the upper portion of the dress where the bonnet's ties have been covered by dark paint. In 1952 the painting was relined, discolored varnish was removed, and the painting was restored. There is some minor inpainting around the sitter's left eye, on her right shoulder, on her neck, and along the bottom edge. A pervasive system of thin, branched cracks runs through the paint film. The glossy varnish has become discolored.

Bibliography

1968: Warner, Deborah Jean. Alvan Clark & Sons, Artists in Optics. Washington, 1968: 119.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 42, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 131, repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 143, 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: 74-75, repro. 73