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Inscription

in a later hand, lower left: Portrait of / Mr Rickarts / Horse Equestraine [sic] / Friend of the artist / Gilbert Stuart; in a later hand, lower right: Portrait of Rickarts / Horse Equestrian / An Intimate Friend of / Gilbert Stuarts

Provenance

The sitter's brother, Francis Ricketts.[1] Purchased at auction around 1853 by Peter Grain, Philadelphia.[2] (Barlow, Washington, D.C.); sold before 1867 to George W. Riggs [1813-1881], Washington;[3] his daughters, Alice Lawrason Riggs [1841-1927] and Jane Agnes Riggs [1853-1930], Washington; bequeathed by Jane Agnes Riggs to her friend, Mary F. McMullan; purchased by Pauline Riggs Noyes [Mrs. Robert B. Noyes], Pomfret, Connecticut, and New York; gift 1942 to NGA.

Exhibition History

1925
Early American Paintings, Miniatures and Silver Assembled by the Washington Loan Exhibition Committee, National Gallery of Art (now Smithsonian American Art Museum), Washington, D.C., 1925-1926, no. 59, as Circus Rider.
1944
Gilbert Stuart: Portraits Lent by the Natioanl Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1944-1945, no. 19, as William Rickhart
1947
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1947.
1949
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1949.
1950
The Face of American History, Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina, 1950, no. 14.
1951
American Portraits from the National Gallery of Art, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1951, no. 14 (organized by the Atlanta Art Association).
1952
[Opening exhibition], Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1952, no catalogue.
1952
[Opening exhibition of new art gallery], Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Lynchburg, Virginia, 1952-1953, no catalogue.
1952
Opening Exhibition of The George Thomas Hunter Gallery of Art, Chattanooga Art Association, Tennessee, 1952, unnumbered catalogue.
1956
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1956.
1967
Gilbert Stuart, Portraitist of the Young Republic, 1755-1828, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1967, no. 20.
1976
Abroad in America: Visitors to the New Nation 1776-1914, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1976, no. 18.
1984
Loan for display with permanent collection, Oklahoma Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, 1984-1987.
1992
Extended loan for use by Ambassador William Fitzgerald, U.S. Embassy residence, Dublin, Ireland, 1992-1993.
1993
Extended loan for use by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, U.S. Embassy residence, Dublin, Ireland, 1993-1998.
1998
Extended loan for use by Ambassadors Michael J. Sullivan and Richard J. Egan, U.S. Embassy residence, Dublin, Ireland, 1998-2003.
2004
Gilbert Stuart, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art (for the National Portrait Gallery), Washington, D.C., 2004-2005, no. 55, repro.
2012
Circus and the City, Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture, New York, 2012-2013, no. 1, repro.

Bibliography

1861
Brown, Thomas Allston. "A Complete History of the Amphitheatre and Circus, from its earliest date, with sketches of some of the principal performers." New York Clipper 8 (19 January 1861): 320.
1867
Tuckerman 1867, 110, 633.
1879
Mason, George C. The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart. New York, 1879: 151, as Breschard, the Circus-Rider.
1880
"Portraits Painted by Stuart...taken from Mason's Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart." In Exhibition of Portraits Painted by Gilbert Stuart. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1880: 32, no. 90, as Breschard, the Circus Rider.
1926
Park 1926, 634-635, no. 691, repro., as Mr. Rechart, or Rickart.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 106, repro.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 382-383, color repro.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 234, repro.
1981
Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 64, repro. 66.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 378, no. 537, color repro.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 349, repro.
1995
Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 208-211, repro. 209.
2000
Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1.. New Haven, 2000: 265, as John Bull Ricketts.
2013
Evans, Dorinda. Gilbert Stuart and the Impact of Manic Depression. Burlington, 2013: 13.
2016
Rather, Susan. The American School: Artists and Status in the Late Colonial and Early National Era. New Haven, 2016: 191-193, color fig. 143.

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