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Gilbert Stuart

Captain Joseph Anthony, 1794

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G42-B

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 91.5 x 71 cm (36 x 27 15/16 in.)

framed: 123.8 x 103.2 cm (48 3/4 x 40 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1942.8.11

Artists / Makers

Gilbert Stuart (painter) American, 1755 - 1828

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Overview

Information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, pages 199-201, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/american-paintings-18th-century.pdf

Provenance

The sitter's great-grandson, Thomas Duncan Smith [1812-1880], Philadelphia;[1] his widow, Mrs. Thomas Duncan Smith, Philadelphia;[2] their son, William Rudolph Smith [d. 1922], Philadelphia;[3] sold by the trustees of his estate on 30 January 1923 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[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 1942 to NGA.

[1] This portrait is first recorded in Museum of Fine Arts, "Portraits Painted by Stuart...taken from Mason's Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart," Exhibition of Portraits Painted by Gilbert Stuart, Boston, 1880, 29, no. 20, as being owned by Thomas D. Smith. Lawrence Park, Gilbert Stuart: An Illustrated Descriptive List of his Works, with an Account of his Life by John Hill Morgan and an Appreciation by Royal Cortissoz, 4 vols., New York, 1926, 105 106, proposed that the provenance was from Joseph Anthony, Jr. (1762 1814), Philadelphia, the son of the sitter, to his daughter Eliza Anthony Smith (Mrs. William Rudolph Smith, 1789 1821), and after her husband's death in 1868, to their son Thomas D. Smith.

[2] Loan Exhibition of Historical Portraits, Exh. cat., The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1887, as lent by "Mrs. Thomas D. Smith."

[3] "J. Rudolph Smith" is listed as the owner in "Stuart," Masters in Art: A Series of Illustrated Monographs, vol. 7, part 73, Boston, 1906, 39; Mantle Fielding, "Paintings by Gilbert Stuart Not Mentioned in Mason's Life of Stuart," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 38 (July 1914), 315, lists "William R. Smith" as the owner.

[4] A letter from Gordon Howard of Frank Partridge, Inc., New York, dated 23 January 1923, to Thomas B. Clarke, discusses the condition and price of the painting after it was offered for sale at Maclees' Gallery in Philadelphia (NGA curatorial file). 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).

Associated Names

Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Smith, Thomas Duncan
Smith, Thomas Duncan, Mrs.
Smith, William Rudolph

Exhibition History

1887: Loan Exhibition of Historical Portraits, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1887-1888, no. 10

1924: Exhibition of the Earliest Known Portraits of Americans by Painters of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, The Union League Club, New York, March 1924, no. 17, as Joseph Anthony.

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, as Joseph Anthony.

1943: American Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1943.

1944: Gilbert Stuart: Portraits Lent by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1944-1945, no. 15

1948: American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1948.

1949: American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1949.

1951: American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1951.

1955: American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1955.

1985: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Stuart, U.S. Embassy residence, Oslo, Norway, 1985-1989.

1991: Extended loan for use by Justice David Souter, The Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1991-2009.

Bibliography

1880: MFA 1880, 29, no. 20

1906: Masters in Art, A Series of Illustrated Monographs: Stuart. 7 (January 1906): 38-39, pl. 6.

1914: Fielding, Mantle. "Paintings by Gilbert Stuart Not Mentioned in Mason's Life of Stuart." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 38 no. 3 (1914): 315.

1924: Cortissoz, Royal. "The Field of Art." Scribner's Magazine 76 (July 1924): 110

1926: Park 1926, 105-106, no. 23, 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.

1929: Gillingham, Harrold E. "Old Business Cards of Philadelphia." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 53 no. 211 (July 1929): 209

1964: Mount 1964, 168, 183, 191, 348, 363-364

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: 227, repro.

1986: McLanathan 1986, repro. 79.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 347, 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: 199-201, color repro. 199.

2004: Barratt, Carrie Rebora, and Ellen G. Miles. Gilbert Stuart. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Mus. of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (for the Natl. Port. Gal.). New York, New Haven, and London, 2004: 13, 26, 129-130, 312, fig. 76.