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Francis Alexander

Sarah Blake Sturgis, 1835

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 61.3 x 46 cm (24 1/8 x 18 1/8 in.)

framed: 77.2 x 64.5 x 7.3 cm (30 3/8 x 25 3/8 x 2 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1947.17.18

Artists / Makers

Francis Alexander (artist) American, 1800 - 1880

Image Use

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Inscription

lower center reverse: Fr. Alexander Pinxet 1835

Provenance

Samuel Parkman Sturgis [1803-1877], brother of the sitter, Canton, China; his brother, James Sturgis [1822-1888], Boston; his son, Charles Wilkins Sturgis [1849-1913], Boston. (Rose M. de Forest [Mrs. Augustus F. de Forest], New York); purchased 10 October 1921 by Thomas B. Clarke [1848 1931], New York;[1] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection on 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to 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).

Associated Names

Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Sturgis, Charles Wilkins
Sturgis, James
Sturgis, Samuel Parkman
de Forest, Rose M.

Exhibition History

1921: Exhibition of Paintings by Early American Portrait Painters, The Union League Club, New York, November 1921, no. 13.

1926: A Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Early American Portrait Painters, The Century Association, New York, 1926, no. 7.

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 Sarah Blake Sturgis.

Technical Summary

The painting is unlined but has a new stretcher, slightly larger than the original. The primary support is a plain-weave, medium-weight fabric. Over a thin, off-white ground layer, the paint was thinly applied with fluid brushstrokes. There are a few areas of impasto in the highlights and the veil. X-radiography suggests that an oval format may have originally been intended. Without further analysis it cannot be determined whether the change to a rectangular format was made by the artist or at a later date. The background shows small, darkened areas of inpainting as well as one large inpainted area at the right ear. The varnish is discolored.

Bibliography

1914: Sturgis, Roger Faxton, ed. Edward Sturgis and His Dependants. Boston, 1914.

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, as Sarah Blake Sturgis.

1953: Pierce, Catharine W. "Francis Alexander." Old-Time New England 44 (October-December) 1953: 44.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 10, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 20, repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 20, 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: 4-6, repro.