A Graduate of Merton College, Oxford, c. 1754/1755

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 127.7 x 102.1 cm (50 1/4 x 40 3/16 in.)

framed: 150.2 x 124.5 x 10.2 cm (59 1/8 x 49 x 4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Richard Southgate

Accession Number

1951.7.1

Artists / Makers

George Knapton (painter) British, 1698 - 1778

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

W.S.B. Grimson by 1930.[1] (M. Knoedler & Co.), London; probably purchased from (M. Knoedler & Co.), New York, by Mrs. Henry C. Lancashire; by descent to her daughter, Mrs. Richard Southgate, Manchester, Massachusetts; gift to NGA, 1951.

[1] A letter to Grimson about the picture, from the then Warden of Merton, in NGA curatorial files, is dated 20 March 1930.

Associated Names

Grimson, W.S.B.
Knoedler & Company, M.
Knoedler & Company, M.
Lancashire, Henry C., Mrs.
Southgate, Richard, Mrs.

Exhibition History

1967: Loan for display with permanent collection, Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences (now Chrysler Museum), Virginia, 1967-1972.

Technical Summary

The medium-fine canvas is plain woven; it has been lined. The ground is light gray, thinly and smoothly applied. The painting is broadly executed in fairly thin, smooth, opaque layers with only slight impasto in the highlights; the brown shadows and thin green paint of the background have a glazelike quality. The light-colored area to the left of the right arm may represent a pentimento, but the x-radiographs do not reveal an underpainted design. The painting is in good condition with only a few minor losses, chiefly in the sky. The natural resin varnish, evenly applied when the picture was surface cleaned in 1951, has not discolored.

Bibliography

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 67, as Joseph Highmore, A Scholar of Merton College, Oxford.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 59, repro., as Joseph Highmore, A Scholar of Merton College, Oxford.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 174, repro., as Joseph Highmore, A Scholar of Merton College, Oxford.

1979: Lewis, Alison Shepherd. "Joseph Highmore: 1692-1780." Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1975. Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1979: 638.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 201, repro., as A Scholar of Merton College, Oxford

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: 150-152, color repro. 151.