Captain Robert Calder, c. 1787/1790

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 92.1 x 71.8 cm (36 1/4 x 28 1/4 in.)

framed: 109.9 x 89.5 x 7 cm (43 1/4 x 35 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1954.1.8

Artists / Makers

Lemuel Francis Abbott (artist) British, c. 1755/1761 - 1802

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Archibald Ramsden, Regent's Park, London; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 1-2 February 1917, 2nd day, no. 239, as by Gilbert Stuart); bought by (Frank T. Sabin), London; from whom it was purchased 1920 by (G.S. Sedgwick) for Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[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, 1954.

[1] Clarke's purchase from the Sabin sale 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).

Associated Names

Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Ramsden, Archibald
Sabin, Frank T.
Sedgwick, G.S.

Exhibition History

1922: Portraits Painted in Europe by Early American Artists, The Union League Club, New York, January 1922, no. 15, as Lieutenant Robert Calder 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 Lieutenant Robert Calder by Gilbert Stuart.

Technical Summary

The medium-coarse canvas is plain woven; it has been lined. The ground appears to be white; there may be layers of colored imprimatura. The painting is executed in rich, fluid, opaque layers applied in a somewhat fuzzy manner. X-radiographs show that the position of the sitter's left hand has been changed. A coat of arms at top right was painted out before the picture's export from England in 1920; there are also more recent retouches along the bottom edge, on the sitter's left shoulder, and scattered throughout the background. The impasto has been slightly flattened during lining. The work is otherwise in good condition. The natural resin varnish has discolored yellow slightly.

Bibliography

1926: Park, Lawrence. Gilbert Stuart. 4 vols. New York, 1926: 1:no. 135; 2:85, repro.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 164, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 10, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 309.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 17, 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: 3-4, repro. 5.