Inscription
center right: C.L. Elliott.
Provenance
The artist, Hoboken, New Jersey, and Albany, New York; his estate; (his estate sale, George A. Leavitt, New York, 7-8 December 1876, 1st day, no. 46);[1] David Johnson [1827-1908], New York; his widow, Marie Louise Johnson, Walden, New York; John W. Reid, Walden;[2] purchased 26 or 28 March 1917 by Thomas B. Clarke [1848 1931], New York;[3] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1947 to NGA.
Exhibition History
- 1850
- Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, 1850, no. 114.
- 1922
- Exhibition of Portraits by Early American Artists, The Union League Club, New York, March 1922, no. 22.
- 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 William S. Mount.
- 1950
- The Face of American History, Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina, 1950, no. 5.
- 1951
- American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1951.
- 1951
- American Portraits from the National Gallery of Art, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1951, no. 23 (organized by the Atlanta Art Association).
- 1952
- [Opening exhibition], Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1952, no. cat.
- 1952
- Opening Exhibition of The George Thomas Hunter Gallery of Art, Chattanooga Art Association, Tennessee, 1952, unnumbered.
- 1953
- American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1953.
- 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.
- 1968
- Painter of Rural America: William Sidney Mount, 1807-1868, Natl. Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; City Art Mus. of St. Louis; Whitney Mus. of Am. Art, New York; M. H. de Young Memorial Mus., San Francisco, 1968-1969, repro. on title page (IEF exh.).
- 1970
- Two Centuries of American Portraits, University of Kentucky Art Gallery, Lexington; Paducah Art Gallery, Kentucky; J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, 1970, no cat.
Technical Summary
The fine-weight, plain-weave fabric support is unlined and attached to its original four-member, mortise-and-tenon stretcher. On the reverse of the fabric is the manufacturer's stencil, "GEO. [Or E] ROWNEY & Co / MANUFACTURERS / 51, RATHBONE PLACE / LONDON.," and the supplier's stencil, "25-30 / S.N. DODGE'S / ARTIST & PAINTER'S / SUPPLY STORE / 189 Chatham [or] / 61 Oliver St. / N YORK." The grayish-white ground is visible through the thin, widely spaced brushstrokes of the background and garments but not the thicker and more smoothly blended areas of flesh. A small tear on the lapel of the sitter's jacket has been patched on the reverse. In 1956-1957 discolored varnish was removed and the painting was restored. A strip-lining was added in 1995 to reinforce the tacking margins. The background is abraded slightly, and there is slight, selective inpainting there and at the edges. The varnish is thin and has not discolored.
Bibliography
- 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.
- 1942
- Bolton, Theodore. "Charles Loring Elliott: An Account of His Life and Work" and "A Catalogue of the Portraits Painted by Charles Loring Elliott (1812-1868)." The Art Quarterly 5 (Winter 1942): 92, no. 86.
- 1944
- Richardson, Edgar P. American Romantic Painting. New York, 1944: 33, no. 129, repro.
- 1952
- Rutledge and Lane 1952, 118-119.
- 1970
- American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 58, repro.
- 1975
- Frankenstein, Alfred. William Sidney Mount. New York, 1975: 15, color pl. 3.
- 1980
- American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 156, repro.
- 1986
- Zellman, Michael David, comp. American Art Analog. 3 vols. New York, 1986: 1:color repro. 152.
- 1992
- American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 174, repro.
- 1996
- Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 221-224, color repro.
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