Roxana Atwater Wentworth, 1876

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 76.8 x 63.5 cm (30 1/4 x 25 in.)

framed: 97.8 x 85.1 x 6.4 cm (38 1/2 x 33 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Lady Vereker

Accession Number

1970.34.1

Artists / Makers

George Peter Alexander Healy (artist) American, 1813 - 1894

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

center left: G.P.A. Healy. / 1876.

Provenance

John Wentworth [1815-1888], Chicago, from 1876; his daughter, the sitter, Roxana Atwater Wentworth [later Mrs. Clarence Winthrop Bowen, 1854-1935], New York; her daughter, Roxana Wentworth Bowen [later Mrs. William Stephen Van Rensselaer and Lady Gordon Vereker, 1895-1968], Valbonne, France; her estate; bequest 1970 to NGA.

Associated Names

Vereker, Roxana Wentworth, Lady
Wentworth, John
Wentworth, Roxana Atwater

Exhibition History

1985: Extended loan for use by Secretary George P. Shultz, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C., 1985-1989.

1989: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Henry A. Catto, U.S. Embassy residence, London, England, 1989-1991.

1991: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Raymond G. H. Seitz, U.S. Embassy residence, London, England, 1991-1994.

Technical Summary

The support is a 2 x 1 twill fabric that has been lined. The painting was apparently stretched on an out-of-square stretcher, since triangular remnants of the top and bottom tacking margins, visible through x-radiography, have been opened and incorporated into the painted surface. Over the smooth, off-white ground the design was roughed out in reddish brown paint. This lay-in is visible, using stereomicroscopy, beneath the brushstrokes in the upper paint layer of the leaves, the rose petals, and the background beyond the sitter's head. The same paint appears to have been thinned and used as a transparent imprimatura in the background. Except for the fleshtones, the picture is generally very thinly painted. There are low brushmarks in the dress, moderate impasto in the face, and dots of high impasto in the earring and collar. A very small amount of inpainting is located in the upper background and close to the bottom edge. The varnish has yellowed.

Bibliography

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 173, repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 197, 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: 298-300, color repro.