William Morris Hunt, c. 1879

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 45.7 x 35.8 cm (18 x 14 1/8 in.)

framed: 68.6 x 58.4 x 3.5 cm (27 x 23 x 1 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1947.17.68

Artists / Makers

Thomas Bayley Lawson (artist) American, 1807 - 1888

Image Use

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Inscription

lower left: TBLawson / 1879

Provenance

The artist's son, Walter U. Lawson [d. 1923], New York, by 1890;[1] sold 28 April 1921 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[1] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1947 to NGA.

[1] Letter of 3 May 1921 from Walter U. Lawson (in NGA curatorial files): "[since 1890] it has been continuously in my possession." [2] 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.
Lawson, Walter U.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.

Exhibition History

1967: Loan for display with permanent collection, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1967-1980.

Technical Summary

The support is a finely woven, light-weight, plain-weave fabric that remains unlined. The ground layer is moderately thick, smooth, and grayish white. The paint was applied painstakingly and thinly with smoothly blended brushstrokes throughout. There is some impasto in the highlighted areas and the strokes defining the watch chain are particularly small and high. There is only scattered inpainting, mostly in the face and in the beard, which appear to cover abrasion. The varnish is thick, dull, and has discolored.

Bibliography

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 78, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 193, repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 226, 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: 416-418, repro.