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Gilbert Stuart

John Randolph, 1804/1805

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G42-A

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 73.6 x 61 cm (29 x 24 in.)

framed: 89.5 x 76.8 x 7 cm (35 1/4 x 30 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1940.1.9

Artists / Makers

Gilbert Stuart (painter) American, 1755 - 1828

Image Use

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Overview

Information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, pages 249-253, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/american-paintings-18th-century.pdf

Provenance

The sitter; his estate until 1845;[1] his half brother, Nathaniel Beverley Tucker [1784-1851], Williamsburg, Virginia;[2] his daughter, Cynthia Beverley Tucker Coleman [Mrs. Charles Washington Coleman, 1832-1908], Williamsburg, Virginia;[3] her son, Charles Washington Coleman, Jr. [1862-1932], Williamsburg, Virginia;[4] his brother, George Preston Coleman [1870-1948], Williamsburg, Virginia;[5] sold 21 January 1937 through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York) to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[6] gift 1940 to NGA.

[1] John Randolph's estate was in litigation until 1845, when a judge ruled in favor of the 1821 version of Randolph's will; William Cabell Bruce, John Randolph of Roanoke, 2 vols., New York and London, 1922, 2:57-58; the will, which is reproduced in Powhatan Bouldin, Home Reminiscences of John Randolph of Roanoke, Danville and Richmond, Viriginia, 1878, 203-210, does not mention the painting specifically. Records concerning final disposition of his estate were destroyed in a fire in Richmond during the Civil War.

[2] Writer-artist David Hunter Strother, known as "Porte Crayon," saw the portrait in the home of Judge Nathaniel Beverley Tucker in November 1849. "Some family portraits in the quaint costumes of past generations adorned the walls, among which was a more modern picture of John Randolph of Roanoke by Stewart" (Cecil D. Eby, Jr., ed., "'Porte Crayon' in the Tidewater," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 67, no. 4 (October 1959), 444. For Tucker's dates see The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, 10 vols., Boston, 1904, unpaginated.

[3] Mrs. Coleman was quoted in 1892 as saying, "I have it by inheritance from my father, who was John Randolph's half-brother"; Bowen, Clarence W., ed., The History of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington, New York, 1892, 522.

[4] Charles Washington Coleman, Jr., to Charles Henry Hart, 13 June 1896 (NGA curatorial file): "The portrait by Stuart, to which you refer, is mine by inheritance, John Randolph having been the brother of my grandfather." For C. W. Coleman's dates see Patricia A. Gibbs' letter dated 4 August 1971 (NGA curatorial file).

[5] Alexander Wilbourne Weddell, ed., A Memorial Volume of Virginia Historical Portraiture, 1585-1830, Richmond, 1930, opp. 332; for George P. Coleman's dates see Patricia A. Gibbs' letter dated 4 August 1971 (NGA curatorial file).

[6] Memorandum, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 29 December 1936, noting release of the painting to Knoedler for sale by George Preston Coleman (copy, NGA curatorial file).

Associated Names

Coleman, Cynthia Beverley Tucker
Coleman, George Preston
Coleman, Jr., Charles Washington
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Randolph, John
Tucker, Nathaniel Beverley

Exhibition History

1900: Loan for display with permanent collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1900-1936.

1925: Exhibition of Early American Paintings, Miniatures and Silver Assembled by the Washington Loan Exhibition Committee, National Gallery of Art (now Smithsonian American Art Museum), Washington, D.C., 1925-1926, no. 65.

1929: Contemporary Portraits of Personages Associated with the Colony and Commonwealth of Virginia, 1585-1830 Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, 1929, no. 53.

1936: Masterpieces of American Historical Portraiture, M. Knoedler and Co., Inc., New York, 1936, no. 4.

1944: Gilbert Stuart: Portraits Lent by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1944-1945, no. 18.

1948: An Exhibition of American Painting from Colonial Times Until Today, The Saginaw Museum, Michigan, 1948, no. 54.

1951: Loan for display in Wren Building, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, 1951.

1967: Gilbert Stuart: Portraitist of the Young Republic, National Gallery of Art; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1967, no. 39.

1993: Classical Taste in America, 1800-1840, Baltimore Museum of Art; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1993-1994, no. 32, repro. (cat. by Wendy A. Cooper).

Bibliography

1832: Randolph, John. Notebook. c. 1832. Tucker-Coleman Collection, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary.

1845: Howe, Henry. Historial Collections of Virginia 1845 (reprint edition, Charleston, 1969): 223

1878: Bouldin, Powhatan. Home Reminiscences of John Randolph of Roanoke. Danville and Richmond, VA, 1878: 62-64, 264

1882: Adams, Henry. John Randolph. 1882 (reprint edition, New York, 1961): 110

1892: Bowen, Clarence W., ed. The History of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington. New York, 1892: 522, repro. opposite 160

1906: Stuart. Masters in Art, A Series of Illustrated Monographs 7 (January 1906): 37-38, pl. 4.

1914: Fielding, Mantle. "Paintings by Gilbert Stuart Not Mentioned in Mason's Life of Stuart." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 38 (July 1914): 330, no. 110.

1922: Bruce, William Cabell. John Randolph of Roanoke. 2 vols. New York, 1922: 1:frontispiece; 2:66, 95.

1926: Park 1926: 2: 632-3, no. 689, repro.

1930: Weddell, Alexander Wilbourne. Virginia Historical Portraiture 1585-1930. Richmond, 1930: 335, repro. opposite 332.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 189, no. 495.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 249, repro. 10.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 141, repro.

1959: Eby, Cecil D., Jr., ed. "Porte Crayon in the Tidewater." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 67 (October 1959): 444

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 104, repro.

1973: Mount, Charles Merrill. "Gilbert Stuart in Washington; with a Catalogue of His Portraits Painted between December 1803 and July 1805." Records of the Columbia Historical Society of Washington, D.C. 48 (1973): repro. 101, 126.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 386 color repro., 387.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 233, repro.

1981: Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 67, repro. 69.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 383, no. 541, color repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 353, repro.

1993: Cooper, Wendy A. Classical Taste in America. Exh. cat. The Baltimore Museum of Art; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 1993:55-56, repro.

1995: Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 249-253, color repro. 251.