Portrait of a Gentleman, c. 1780/1790

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall (oval): 37.4 x 30 cm (14 3/4 x 11 13/16 in.)

framed: 49.2 x 42.1 x 4.8 cm (19 3/8 x 16 9/16 x 1 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1954.1.7

Artists / Makers

British 18th Century (painter)

Image Use

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Inscription

falsely signed, center left: Henry Pelham pinx

Provenance

(Rose M. [Mrs. Augustus] de Forest, New York); sold 15 August 1927 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York, as a portrait of John Cushing by Henry Pelham;[1] his estate; purchased through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), as part of the Clarke collection, on 29 January 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1954 to NGA.

[1] 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 provenance from Charles Cushing, the supposed American sitter's son, supplied by the dealer, de Forest, cannot be verified. James W. Lane and Anna Rutledge suggested in their report on the Clarke collection (quoted by William P. Campbell, memorandum, 10 November 1965, in NGA curatorial files) that the picture might be a British import, and this view was supported by Sir Ellis Waterhouse (opinion recorded by William P. Campbell, note, 29 April 1975, in NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
de Forest, Rose M.

Exhibition History

1928: A Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Early American Portrait Painters, The Century Association, New York, 1928, no. 17, as John Cushing by Henry Pelham.

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 John Cushing by Henry Pelham.

Technical Summary

The canvas is finely plain woven; it has been lined. The ground is white. The
painting is executed in thin layers, with little modeling, and with very slight
impasto in the highlights. The paint surface is severely abraded, with
innumerable tiny losses and retouching throughout. The thick, natural resin
varnish has discolored yellow to a significant degree.

Bibliography

1932: Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. Early American Painting. New York and London, 1932: 17.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 162, repro., as Portrait of a Man by American (?).

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 308, as Portrait of a Man by Unknown [Formerly Considered American].

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 414, repro., as Portrait of a Man by Unknown Nationality 18th Century.

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: 302-303, repro. 303.