Captain Joseph Anthony
1794
Painter, American, 1755 - 1828
West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G41-B
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 91.5 x 71 cm (36 x 27 15/16 in.)
framed: 123.8 x 103.2 cm (48 3/4 x 40 5/8 in.) -
Accession
1942.8.11
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
The sitter's great-grandson, Thomas Duncan Smith [1812-1880], Philadelphia;[1] his widow, Mrs. Thomas Duncan Smith, Philadelphia;[2] their son, William Rudolph Smith [d. 1922], Philadelphia;[3] sold by the trustees of his estate on 30 January 1923 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[4] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection on 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] This portrait is first recorded in Museum of Fine Arts, "Portraits Painted by Stuart...taken from Mason's _Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart," _Exhibition of Portraits Painted by Gilbert Stuart, Boston, 1880, 29, no. 20, as being owned by Thomas D. Smith. Lawrence Park, Gilbert Stuart: An Illustrated Descriptive List of his Works, with an Account of his Life by John Hill Morgan and an Appreciation by Royal Cortissoz, 4 vols., New York, 1926, 105 106, proposed that the provenance was from Joseph Anthony, Jr. (1762 1814), Philadelphia, the son of the sitter, to his daughter Eliza Anthony Smith (Mrs. William Rudolph Smith, 1789 1821), and after her husband's death in 1868, to their son Thomas D. Smith.
[2] Loan Exhibition of Historical Portraits, Exh. cat., The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1887, as lent by "Mrs. Thomas D. Smith."
[3] "J. Rudolph Smith" is listed as the owner in "Stuart," Masters in Art: A Series of Illustrated Monographs, vol. 7, part 73, Boston, 1906, 39; Mantle Fielding, "Paintings by Gilbert Stuart Not Mentioned in Mason's Life of Stuart," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 38 (July 1914), 315, lists "William R. Smith" as the owner.
[4] A letter from Gordon Howard of Frank Partridge, Inc., New York, dated 23 January 1923, to Thomas B. Clarke, discusses the condition and price of the painting after it was offered for sale at Maclees' Gallery in Philadelphia (NGA curatorial file). The name of the seller and the date of purchase are recorded in a copy of Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Collected by Thomas B. Clarke (Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928) annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library).
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1887
Loan Exhibition of Historical Portraits, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1887-1888, no. 10
1924
Exhibition of the Earliest Known Portraits of Americans by Painters of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, The Union League Club, New York, March 1924, no. 17, as Joseph Anthony.
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 Joseph Anthony.
1943
American Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1943.
1944
Gilbert Stuart: Portraits Lent by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1944-1945, no. 15
1948
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1948.
1949
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1949.
1951
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1951.
1955
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1955.
1985
Extended loan for use by Ambassador Stuart, U.S. Embassy residence, Oslo, Norway, 1985-1989.
1991
Extended loan for use by Justice David Souter, The Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1991-2009.
Bibliography
1880
MFA 1880, 29, no. 20
1906
Masters in Art, A Series of Illustrated Monographs: Stuart. 7 (January 1906): 38-39, pl. 6.
1914
Fielding, Mantle. "Paintings by Gilbert Stuart Not Mentioned in Mason's Life of Stuart." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 38 no. 3 (1914): 315.
1924
Cortissoz, Royal. "The Field of Art." Scribner's Magazine 76 (July 1924): 110
1926
Park 1926, 105-106, no. 23, repro.
1928
Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Collected by Thomas B. Clarke. Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928, unnumbered.
1929
Gillingham, Harrold E. "Old Business Cards of Philadelphia." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 53 no. 211 (July 1929): 209
1964
Mount 1964, 168, 183, 191, 348, 363-364
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 102, repro.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 227, repro.
1986
McLanathan 1986, repro. 79.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 347, 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: 199-201, color repro. 199.
2004
Barratt, Carrie Rebora, and Ellen G. Miles. Gilbert Stuart. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Mus. of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (for the Natl. Port. Gal.). New York, New Haven, and London, 2004: 13, 26, 129-130, 312, fig. 76.
Wikidata ID
Q20180071