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Joseph Wright

Portrait of a Gentleman, c. 1770-1773

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 59

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 128 x 102 cm (50 3/8 x 40 3/16 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1940.1.11

Artists / Makers

Joseph Wright (painter) British, 1734 - 1797

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

William Curzon [1836-1916], Lockington Hall, Derbyshire; purchased 1916, at the dispersal of the Curzon estate, by Mrs. Claire Marion Cox, London, as Richard, Earl Howe, by John Singleton Copley; consigned 1932 by Mrs. Cox to (The Hackett Galleries, New York); returned to Mrs. Cox and later consigned to (Mrs. Chambers Wood, New York), who sold it 1932 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[1] purchased May 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1940 to NGA.

[1] Knoedler's records give the early provenance (letter from Elizabeth Clare to NGA curator William Campbell, 5 November 1963, in NGA curatorial files). Clare quotes a letter from Mrs. Cox to Mrs. Wood, undated but presumably 1932, in which Mrs. Cox states that the 1916 dispersal "was a hurried executors' sale and few persons attended it."

Associated Names

Cox, Claire Marion, Mrs.
Curzon, William
Hackett Galleries, The
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Wood, Chambers, Mrs.

Exhibition History

1932: Inaugural exhibition, Museum of the City of New York, 1932, no catalogue, as by Copley.

1933: The Opening Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1933, no. 1, as by Copley.

Technical Summary

The medium-to-heavyweight canvas is twill woven; it has been lined. The ground is off-white, thinly applied. The painting is mostly executed in thin, opaque layers; the costume is rendered in thicker paint applied in small strokes, the furry texture of the lapels being created by means of a stiff white paint covered with a transparent blue glaze; there is a low impasto in the leaves and highlights. The background is extensively abraded, but otherwise there is minimal paint loss. The moderately thick natural resin varnish has discolored yellow to a moderate degree.

Bibliography

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 43, no. 497, as Richard, Earl Howe by John Singleton Copley.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 249, repro. 7, as Richard, Earl Howe by John Singleton Copley.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 130, repro., as Richard, Earl Howe, by John Singleton Copley.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 140, as Richard, Earl Howe.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 127, repro., as Richard, Earl Howe.

1968: Nicolson, Benedict. Joseph Wright of Derby: Painter of Light. 2 vols. London, 1968: 1:36, 207; 2:pl. 90.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 166, repro., as Richard, Earl Howe (?).

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 376, repro., as Richard, Earl Howe (?).

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 530, color repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 307, as Richard, Earl Howe (?).

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 439, repro., as Richard, Earl Howe (?).

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: 342-344, repro. 343.