The Hon. Sir Francis Burton Conyngham, c. 1790/1795

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 75.9 x 63.9 cm (29 7/8 x 25 3/16 in.)

framed: 101 x 87.6 x 6.4 cm (39 3/4 x 34 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1947.17.102

Artists / Makers

British 18th Century (painter)

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Painted for the sitter, the Hon. Sir Francis Nathaniel Pierpont Burton Conyngham [1766-1832], County Clare [Ireland]; by descent to his grandson William Conyngham Vandeleur Burton [1846-1919], Carrigaholt Castle, County Clare;[1] from whose estate it was sold to (Tooth Brothers), London, from whom it was purchased 16 March 1920 by (G.S. Sedgwick) for Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York, as by Gilbert Stuart;[1] sold by Clarke's executors to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), from whom it was purchased 29 January 1936, as part of the Clarke collection, by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift to NGA, 1947.

[1] Clarke's purchase from Tooth is according to 1928 Clarke exhibition catalogue annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library). The painting probably passed through William Burton's father, Henry Stuart Burton [d. 1867], and perhaps also through the latter's eldest son, William's older brother Francis Nathaniel Valentine Burton [d. 1883]. See Burke's Peerage, Limited, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 105th ed. (London, 1970), 627.

Associated Names

Burton, William Conyngham Vandeleur
Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Conyngham, Francis Nathaniel Pierpont Burton, Hon. Sir
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Sedgwick, G.S.
Tooth & Sons, Ltd., Arthur

Exhibition History

1922: Portraits Painted in Europe by Early American Artists, The Union League Club, New York, January 1922, no. 6, as Sir Francis N. P. Conyngham by Gilbert Stuart.

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 Sir Francis N. P. Conyngham by Gilbert Stuart.

1968: Loan for display with the permanent collection, Boyhood Home of Robert E. Lee, Alexandria, Virginia, 1968-1986.

Technical Summary

The canvas is plain woven; it is unlined. The proprietary white ground is of moderate thickness. The composition is oval in format; the area outside the oval is painted in brown. The painting is executed in thin, fluid, opaque layers, blended wet into wet, with slight impasto in the reds and whites; the shading in the blue coat and the delineation of the feigned oval are accomplished with a gray glaze. There are pentimenti in the red collar, which has been shifted in position. The painting is in excellent condition. There is little loss or abrasion, and no areas of retouching. The natural resin varnish has not discolored.

Bibliography

1926: Park, Lawrence. Gilbert Stuart. 4 vols. New York, 1926: 1:no. 182.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 166, repro., as Honorable Sir Francis N. P. Burton (?).

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 48, repro., as Honorable Sir Francis N.P. Burton (?).

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 309, as Honorably Sir Francis N. P. Burton (?).

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 20, repro.

1992: Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 304-305, repro. 304.