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Gilbert Stuart

Sir John Dick, 1783

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 91.8 x 71.4 cm (36 1/8 x 28 1/8 in.)

framed: 109.9 x 89.5 x 6.4 cm (43 1/4 x 35 1/4 x 2 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1954.1.10

Artists / Makers

Gilbert Stuart (painter) American, 1755 - 1828

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

in a later hand, upper right: Sir John Dick of Braid, Bart / Knight of St. Anne of Russia. / Born 1719-Died 1804. / by Gilbert Stuart 1782.

Provenance

Painted for Sir Alexander Dick, 3rd Baronet [1703-1785], Prestonfield, Scotland;[1] by descent to his great-grandson, Sir Robert Keith Alexander Dick-Cunyngham, 9th Baronet [1836-1897], Prestonfield, Scotland; his son, William Stewart Dick-Cunyngham, 10th Baronet [1871-1922], Prestonfield, Scotland; (T. H. Robinson, London, 1921); (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); purchased 14 October 1921 by Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[2] 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 1954 to NGA.

[1] On the baronets of Prestonfield see Mrs. J. Stewart Smith, The Grange of St. Giles, and the other Baronial Homes of the Dick-Lauder Family, Edinburgh, 1898, 126-136, and Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, Privy Council and Order of Precedence, 97th ed., London, 1939, 710-712.

[2] M. Knoedler & Co. purchased a joint share in the painting from T.H. Robinson, London, in June 1921 and sold the painting to Clarke in October, according to Knoedler librarian Melissa de Medeiros (letter, 5 June 1992, in NGA curatorial file). The name of the seller and the date of purchase are recorded in a copy of Portraits by Early American Paintings 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).

Associated Names

Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Dick, Dick, 3rd Bt. Prestonfield, Alexander, Sir
Dick-Cunyngham, 10th Bt. Prestonfield, William Stewart, Sir
Dick-Cunyngham, Dick-Cunyngham, 9th Bt. Prestonfield, Robert Keith, Sir
Knoedler & Company, M.
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Robinson, T.H.

Exhibition History

1884: Scottish National Portraits, Edinburgh, 1884, no. 456

1922: Portraits Painted in Europe by Early American Artists, The Union League Club, New York, January 1922, 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.

1967: American Painting, Art Resources Traveler (Artmobile), Illinois, 1967-1968.

1970: Extended loan for use by the Ambassador, U.S. Embassy residence, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 1970-1974.

1974: Selected American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, University Center Gallery, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, 1974, no cat.

1976: Loan for display with permanent collection, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 1976-1982.

1986: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Ronald Lauder, U.S Embassy residence, Vienna, Austria, 1986-1990.

Bibliography

1897: Forbes, Mrs. Athol, ed. Curiosities of a Scots Charta Chest. Edinburgh, 1897: 308-316.

1898: Smith, Mrs. J. Stewart. The Grange of St. Giles, and the other Baronial Homes of the Dick-Lauder Family. Edinburgh, 1898: 126-136.

1913: Strickland, Walter G. A Dictionary of Irish Artists. 2 vols. Dublin and London, 1913: 2:414.

1914: Fielding, Mantle. "Paintings by Gilbert Stuart not mentioned in Mason's Life of Stuart." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 38 (1914): 321, no. 43.

1922: Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. "Current Comment: Exhibitions." Art in America 10, no. 3 (April 1922): 143-144.

1926: Park 1926, 287-288, no. 246, repro.

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.

1932: Whitley, William T. Gilbert Stuart. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1932: 10-11

1939: Morgan, John Hill. Gilbert Stuart and his Pupils. 1939. Reprint. New York, 1969: 13.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 102, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 229, repro.

1986: McLanathan, Richard. Gilbert Stuart. New York, 1986, color repro. 50, 51.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 346, 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: 169-172, repro. 171.