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Gilbert Stuart

Stephen Van Rensselaer III, 1793/1795

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G42-C

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 91.7 x 71.3 cm (36 1/8 x 28 1/16 in.)

framed: 113 x 92.7 x 6.7 cm (44 1/2 x 36 1/2 x 2 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1942.8.20

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 .

Overview

Information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, pages 196-198, 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 son, William Patterson Van Rensselaer [1805-1872], New York; his son, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer [1845-1905]; his son, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer [1879-1949], New York;[1] sold 13 February 1919 to 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 1942 to NGA.

[1] Brief notices of Van Rensselaer's descendants are in William Richard Cutter, ed., Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley, 3 vols., New York, 1913, 1:11-12; for Kiliaen Van Rensselaer's date of death see his obituary in The New York Times, 24 August 1949, 25.

[2] 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.
Van Rensselaer, Kiliaen
Van Rensselaer, Kiliaen
Van Rensselaer, William Paterson

Exhibition History

1819: American Academy of Fine Arts, New York, 1819, no. 48 (Possibly)

1907: Loan Exhibition of Colonial Relics, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1907, no cat.

1922: Portraits Painted in the United States by Early American Artists, The Union League Club, New York, February 1922, no. 19.

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.

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. 11

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.

1950: American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1950.

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.

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

1956: American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1956.

1967: Loan for display with permanent collection, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1967-1990.

2005: Slavery and the Making of New York, New York Historical Society, 2005-2006, no cat., as Stephen Van Rensselaer.

Bibliography

1888: Rensselaer, May King Van. The Van Rensselaers of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck. New York, 1888:17-21, repro.

1907: Pelletreau, William S. Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Family History of New York. 4 vols. New York and Chicago, 1907:2:repro facing title page

1926: Park 1926, 775-776, no. 865, 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.

1964: Mount 1964, 376

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 106, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 236, repro.

1984: McClave, Elizabeth W. Stephen Van Rensselaer III: a Pictorial Reflection and Biographical Commentary. , 1984: frontispiece.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 349, 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: 196-198, color repro. 197.