Thomas Alston, 1826

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 76.7 x 63.7 cm (30 3/16 x 25 1/16 in.)

framed: 105.4 x 92.1 x 8.3 cm (41 1/2 x 36 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1947.17.108

Artists / Makers

Thomas Sully (artist) American, born England, 1783 - 1872

Image Use

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Inscription

lower left: TS (in monogram) 1826.

Provenance

Commissioned 1825 by the sitter's father, Colonel John Ashe Alston [1783-1831]. Sarah McPherson Alston Middleton [Mrs. John Izard Middleton, 1807-1878], Middleton, South Carolina, sister of the sitter; her son, John Izard Middleton [b. 1834], Baltimore, Maryland; his nephew, John Izard Middleton [b. 1867], New York; purchased 24 October 1922 by Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York; 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.

Associated Names

Alston, John Ashe, Colonel
Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Middleton, John Izard
Middleton, John Izard
Middleton, Sarah McPherson Alston

Exhibition History

1923: Exhibition of Portraits by Early American Portrait Painters, The Union League Club, New York, 1923, no. 11.

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.

1972: Extended loan for use in Chief Justice Rehnquist's chambers, 1986-2002.

1973: Thomas Sully 1783-1872, Bedford Gallery, Longwood College, Farmville, Virginia, 1973, no. 11.

1986: Extended loan for use by The Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1986-

Bibliography

1909: Hart 1909, no. 29, 20.

1921: Biddle, Edward, and Mantle Fielding. The Life and Works of Thomas Sully (1783-1872). Philadelphia, 1921: no. 32, 86.

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.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 110, repro.

1973: Flynn, Elizabeth L. Thomas Sully, 1783-1872. Exh. cat. Bedford College, Longwood College, Farmville, Virginia, 1973.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 240, repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 362, repro.

1998: Torchia, Robert Wilson, with Deborah Chotner and Ellen G. Miles. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1998: 169-173, color repro.