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Gilbert Stuart

George Washington, c. 1800

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 73.18 × 60.48 cm (28 13/16 × 23 13/16 in.)

framed: 99.7 × 84.77 × 14.61 cm (39 1/4 × 33 3/8 × 5 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection)

Accession Number

2014.136.46

Artists / Makers

Gilbert Stuart (painter) American, 1755 - 1828

Image Use

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Provenance

Thomas B. Carroll [1816/1817-1894], Saratoga, New York;[1] (his estate sale, American Art Association, New York, 22 May 1895, no. 149); purchased by J.O. Wright or possibly Mrs. Mary Bacon Ford.[2] Charles Conrad Ruthrauff [1853-1912], New York. Miss Mary Ellen Ford and Charles Henry Hart, Philadelphia; purchased by William A. Clark [1839-1925], New York, by 1905;[3] bequest 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

[1] The first three names in the provenance, Carroll (printed incorrectly as "B. Carroll"), Mrs. Mary Bacon Ford, and Ruthrauff, come from Gustavus A. Eisen, Portraits of Washingon, 3 vols., New York, 1932: 1:143, 145, 168, 273 pl. 68. They are not given in these standard sources about Stuart and Washington portraits: Mantle Fielding, Gilbert Stuart's Portraits of George Washinton, Philadelphia, 1923: 221, no. 100; Lawrence Park, compiler, GIlbert Stuart: An illustrated Descriptive Live of his Works, New York, 1926: mag. sec., 2; John Hill Morgan and Mantle Fielding, The Life Portraits of Washington and Their Replicas, Philadelphia, 1931: 308. These three sources state only that the portrait was purchased by Clark from Miss Mary Ellen Ford and Charles Henry Hart around 1905. See the memo about this provenance, 17 April 2009, Ellen G. Miles (curator, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution) to Sarah Cash (curator, Corcoran Gallery of Art), as well as Dr. Miles's research, and that of Adam Greenlagh, in NGA curatorial files.

Carroll was a member of the New York state senate for the 12th district from 1850 to 1951, and the mayor of Troy, New York, from 1871 to 1873. Mrs. Ford was the manager of the New Gallery in New York City, which closed in late 1908.

[2] A copy of the sale catalogue at the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts, is annotated with the name "J.O. Wright," who would be James Osborne Wright (1851-1920), a collector and dealer of rare books who occasionally sold paintings and prints (see the 17 April 2009 memo referenced in note 1). Eisen 1932 (see note 1) appears to indicate the buyer was Mrs. Ford.

[3] Clark lent the painting to a portrait exhibition held in January 1905 at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Associated Names

American Art Association
Carroll, Thomas B.
Clark, William Andrews
Corcoran Gallery of Art
Ford, Mary Bacon, Mrs.
Ford, Mary Ellen
Hart, Charles Henry
Ruthrauff, Charles Conrad
Wright, James Osborne

Exhibition History

1905: Loan Exhibition of Portraits, Art Institute of Chicago, 1905, no. 121.

1966: Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, unpublished checklist.

1972: The Great Game of Politics, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1972, unpublished checklist.

1976: Corcoran [The American Genuis], Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1976, no checklist.

1985: American Masterpieces from American Museums, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, 1986, no catalogue.

1989: The William A. Clark Collection: Treasures of a Copper King, Yellowstone Art Center, Billings; Montana Historical Society, Helena, 1989, unnumbered catalogue.

2004: Figuratively Speaking: The Human Form in American Art, 1770-1950, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2004, unpublished checklist.

2008: The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008, unpublished checklist.

2010: Discovering the Real George Washington: A View from Mount Vernon, Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens, 2010-2011.

2013: American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013-28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

2016: America's Presidents Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 2016-2017, no catalogue.

2018: Es war einmal in Amerika: 300 Jahre US-Amerikanische Kunst [Once Upon a Time in America: Three Centuries of US-American Art], Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, 2018-2019, no. 12, repro.

Bibliography

1925: Carroll, Dana H. Catalogue of Objects of Fine Art and Other Properties at the Home of William Andrews Clark, 962 Fifth Avenue. Part I. Unpublished manuscript, n.d. (1925): 14.

2011: Miles, Ellen G. "Gilbert Stuart, George Washington." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 58-59, 255, repro.