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Ezra Ames

Maria Gansevoort Melvill (Mrs. Allan Melvill), c. 1815

Not on View

Medium

oil on wood

Dimensions

overall: 76.2 x 59.7 cm (30 x 23 1/2 in.)

framed: 97.8 x 82.6 x 8.3 cm (38 1/2 x 32 1/2 x 3 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1947.17.20

Artists / Makers

Ezra Ames (artist) American, 1768 - 1836

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

The sitter [1791-1872]; by descent to her granddaughter, Charlotte Elizabeth Hoadley [1858-1946], Chicago.[1] (C.W. Lyon, New York); sold 26 January 1917 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[2] (sale, American Art Association, New York, 7 January 1919, no. 24); E. T. Heckscher.[3] Again Thomas B. Clarke by December 1921;[4] 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] At the sitter's death in 1872, the portrait presumably passed to her daughter, Katherine G. Hoadley [d. 1905], Boston (possibly through Hoadley's sister, Frances Priscilla Melville [d. 1885], who had lived with her mother and continued to occupy the family home in Gansevoort, New York, until her own death). (Herman Melville, in a letter of 1875 to his cousin Catherine Gansevoort Lansing, refers to "mother's portrait" hanging in the family home at Gansevoort [Paltsits 1977, 33]). At the time of Katherine Hoadley's death, Charlotte Hoadley was her oldest surviving child and only surviving daughter. According to a codicil to Katherine's will, dated 23 April 1894 (no. 129493, Suffolk County Probate Court, Massachusetts), Charlotte Hoadley inherited "all my furniture, pictures, books, plate, crockery, linen and similar articles." See also the undated, handwritten label (in NGA curatorial files) that attributes the portrait to Gilbert Stuart and calls it the "Property of Charlotte Hoadley." The Stuart attribution has never been accepted.

[2] The name of the dealer and the date of the purchase by Clarke 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).

[3] Heckscher's name is recorded in an annotated copy of the 1919 sale catalogue in the Frick Art Reference Library, New York.

Associated Names

American Art Association
Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Heckscher, E.T.
Hoadley, Charlotte Elizabeth
Knoedler & Company, M.
Lyon, C.W.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Melvill, Maria Gansevoort

Exhibition History

1921: Exhibition of Paintings by Early American Portrait Painters, The Union League Club, New York, December 1921, no. 12.

1928: A Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Early American Portrait Painters, The Century Association, New York, 1928, no. 16.

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.

1971: Loan for display with permanent collection, Berkshire Athenaeum Public Library, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1971-1983.

Technical Summary

The panel, 0.9-1.1 cm thick and most likely of poplar, has a vertical grain and was tangentially cut. The reverse of the panel is stained with dark red paint. The off-white ground was scored to resemble a fine twill fabric, with subsequent paint applied in multiple layers, both wet-over-dry and wet-into-wet. Paint application is thin, with the exception of the raised areas of jewelry and lace. The varnish has yellowed considerably.

Bibliography

1928: Cary, Elisabeth L. "Americans of the Past." The New York Times, 25 May 1928.

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.

1955: Bolton, Theodore and Irwin F. Cortelyou. Ezra Ames of Albany: Portrait Painter, Craftsman, Royal Arch Mason, Banker, 1768-1836. New York, 1955: 255, no. 211.

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

1972: Gilman, William H. Melville's Early Life and Redburn. New York, 1972: 10-11.

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: 21 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: 7-9, color repro.