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Robert Edge Pine

General William Smallwood, 1785/1788

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 73.8 x 61.1 cm (29 1/16 x 24 1/16 in.)

framed: 93 x 80.7 x 10.2 cm (36 5/8 x 31 3/4 x 4 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1947.17.89

Artists / Makers

Robert Edge Pine (painter) American, 1730 - 1788

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

The sitter's nephew, William Truman Stoddert [1759-1793]; his son, John Truman Stoddert [1790-1870], Charles County, Maryland; his daughter, Elizabeth Stoddert Bowie [Mrs. Robert Bowie, Jr., 1826-c.1905], Charles County and Baltimore, Maryland;[1] sold 1892 to James A. Conner [d. 1921], Baltimore;[2] bequeathed to George D. Hall, Seattle, Washington.[3] J. Bannister Hall; purchased 1922 by Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[4] 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] After the death of her children, Mrs. Bowie moved to Baltimore, where she lived with her grandson Robert William Bowie Stoddert. She provided the provenance for the portrait in a statement given to Thomas G. Hull, Notary Public, Baltimore, on April 15, 1905 (copy owned by Thomas B. Clarke, curatorial file). She also stated that the sitter had commissioned the portrait for his mother, but this is unlikely since Mrs. Smallwood died in 1784. For biographical information on these owners see Walter Worthington Bowie, The Bowies and their Kindred (Washington, D.C., 1899), 204-206; Who Was Who in America; Historical Volume, 1607-1896, rev. ed. (Chicago, 1967), 580 (John Truman Stoddert); and Edward C. Papenfuse et. al., A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635-1789 (Baltimore, 1979), 2: 741 (William Smallwood). William Stoddert's dates were provided by the Society of the Cincinnati, Washington, D.C.; he was a founding member (Bryce Metcalf, Original Members and Other Officers eligible to the Society of the Cincinnati, 1783-1938 (Strasburg, VA, 1938), 299.

[2] A copy of the bill of sale dated 30 November 1892 was given to Thomas B. Clarke in 1922 (NGA curatorial file).

[3] Conner, who died on 29 May 1921, named his deceased wife's nephew George D. Hall as his heir (will filed with the Register of Wills, Baltimore, Maryland); the inventory of Conner's estate included a "Family Oil Portrait" valued at $5.00 and a "Lot of Pictures" valued at $25. Hall, of Seattle, Washington, is listed as a former owner of the painting in A Loan Exhibition of Portraits of Soldiers and Sailors in American Wars (Duveen Galleries, New York, 1945), 40.

[4] The name of the seller and the date of purchase are recorded in a copy of Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Collected by Thomas B. Clarke, Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928, annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library). J. Bannister Hall, Jr. is listed as a lawyer in a 1922 Baltimore City directory; his relationship to George D. Hall is unknown.

Associated Names

Bowie, Elizabeth Stoddert
Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Conner, James A.
Hall, George D.
Hall, J. Bannister
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Stoddert, John Truman
Stoddert, William Truman

Exhibition History

1923: Exhibition of Portraits by Early American Portrait Painters, The Union League Club, New York, 1923, no. 4.

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.

1945: A Loan Exhibition of Portraits of Soldiers and Sailors in American Wars, Duveen Galleries, New York, 1945, no. 10.

1955: Famous Americans, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, Maryland, 1955, no cat.

1958: Smallwood Foundation, Inc., Faulkner, Maryland, September 1958.

1960: Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, April 1960.

1965: Loan for display with permanent collection, National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C., 1965-1989.

1975: Extended loan for display with the museum's collection, 1975-2004.

1979: Robert Edge Pine: A British Portrait Painter in America, 1784-1788, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, 1979-1980, no. 61.

Bibliography

1923: Exhibition of Portraits by Early American Portrait Painters. Exh. cat. The Union League Club, New York, 1923: no. 4.

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.

1945: A Loan Exhibition of Portraits of Soldiers and Sailors in American Wars. Exh. cat. Duveen Galleries, New York, 1945: no. 10.

1952: Sellers, Charles Coleman. Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale. Philadelphia, 1952: 12, 195, no. 800.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 90, repro.

1979: Stewart, Robert G. Robert Edge Pine: A British Portrait Painter in America, 1784-1788. Exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery, Washington, 1979: 59, 82-83, no. 61, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 210, repro.

1981: Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 71, repro. 73.

1983: Miller, Lillian B., Sidney Hart, Toby A. Appel, and David C. Ward, eds. The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family. 3 vols. New Haven and London, 1983-1991: 1:495-496, 504-505.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 262, 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: 129-132, repro. 131.