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Gilbert Stuart

Dr. William Hartigan (?), c. 1793

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 76.2 x 63.5 cm (30 x 25 in.)

framed: 97.2 x 84.8 cm (38 1/4 x 33 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1942.8.16

Artists / Makers

Gilbert Stuart (painter) American, 1755 - 1828

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

Acquired by 1846 from descendants of the sitter by Charles Loring Elliott [1812-1868], New York; Abraham M. Cozzens [1811-1868], New York, by 1856; (his estate sale, Clinton Hall Art Galleries, New York, 22 May 1868, no. 23);[1] purchased by Jonathan Sturges [1802-1874], New York and Mill Place, Connecticut;[2] his widow, Mary P. Sturges; their son, Henry C. Sturges [1846-1922], New York and Fairfield, Connecticut;[3] bought 1 April 1921 by 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] Thomas Bangs Thorpe, Remininscences of Charles L. Elliott, artist, New York, 1868: 7; "Sketchings. Our Private Collections. No. III," [Abraham M. Cozzens' collection], The Crayon 3, no. 4 (April 1856):123; Leavitt, Strebeigh & Co., Catalogue of the Entire Collection of Paintings Belonging to the Late Mr. A.M. Cozzens...May 22, 1868 , New York, 1868: 7, no. 23, as "Dr. Houghton, of Dublin." According to the auction catalogue, Elliott "obtained it direct from the family for whom Mr. Stuart painted it."

[2] 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: 386; on Sturges see The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 63 vols., Clifton, New Jersey, 1893-1984: 3:350.

[3] In his will (according to The New York Times (17 December 1874): 3, Jonathan Sturges left all books, pictures, and works of art in his city residence to his wife, Mary P. Sturges. On Henry Sturges see The New York Times (18 February 1922): 13 (obituary).

[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 filess and in NGA library).

Associated Names

Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Clinton Hall Art Galleries
Cozzens, Abraham M.
Elliott, Charles Loring
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Sturges, Henry C.
Sturges, Jonathan
Sturges, Mary P.

Exhibition History

1922: Portraits Painted in Europe by Early American Artists, Union League Club, New York, January 1922, no. 2, Dr. William Hartigan.

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 Dr. William Hartigan.

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. 4.

1947: American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1947.

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

1967: Extended loan for use by Dumbarton House (The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America), Washington, D.C., 1967-1974.

1982: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Kenneth Galbraith, U.S. Embassy residence, Paris, France, 1982-1985.

1985: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Joe M. Rodgers, U.S. Embassy residence, Paris, France, 1985-1986.

1988: Extended loan for use by Blair House, Washington, D.C., 1988-2004.

Bibliography

1856: "Sketchings. Our Private Collection. No. III." [Abraham Cozzens' collection] The Crayon 3, no. 4 (April 1856):123

1867: Tuckerman 1867, 62, 303-305, 623

1868: Thorpe, Thomas Bangs. Reminiscences of Charles L. Elliott, artist. New York, 1868:7

1879: Mason, George C. The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart. New York, 1879: 43-45, 201.

1880: MFA 1880, 43, no. 310

1881: Hart, Charles Henry. "The Stuart Exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston." American Art Review 1 (1881): 2nd division:487

1926: Park 1926, 385-386, 900, 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: Lee, Cuthbert. Early American Portrait Painters. New Haven, 1929:25

1964: Mount 1964, 152, 167, 169, 345-346, 369

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 104, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 230, repro.

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: 179-183, repro. 181.