Counsellor John Dunn
c. 1798
Painter, American, 1755 - 1828
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 74 x 61.5 cm (29 1/8 x 24 3/16 in.)
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Accession
1942.8.14
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Unidentified descendants of the sitter, Norfolk, England; sold 1909 to (James Connell and Sons, London); (Louis Ralston, New York), 1909.[1] James W. Ellsworth [1849-1925], New York; sold March 1923 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[2] sold 26 March 1923 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[3] 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] The early provenance of the portrait is documented only by a letter from Tom Connell of James Connell and Sons, London, dated 25 September 1909, to Louis Ralston (NGA curatorial file). Clarke may have been given this letter in 1923. He apparently had asked Louis Ralston about the provenance of the portrait, for Ralston wrote on 1 June 1923 that he would "take up the matter" with Mr. Connell in London "and advise you of the result."
[2] Melissa De Medeiros, librarian, M. Knoedler & Co., confirmed the purchase by Knoedler in a letter dated 7 March 1992 (NGA curatorial file). Ellsworth, a financier and art collector, also sold his collection of books and manuscripts in 1923 for $450,000; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 63 vols, Clifton, New Jersey, 1893-1894, 26:176 and Who's Who in America, vol. 8, Chicago, 1914, 727.
[3] The name of the seller and the date of purchase are recorded in a copy of Portraits by Early American Painters 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
1924
Exhibition of Portraits by Early American Portrait Painters, The Union League Club, New York, February 1924, no. 17.
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.
1944
Gilbert Stuart: Portraits Lent by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1944-1945, no. 13
1947
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1947.
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.
1950
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1950.
1953
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1953.
1955
Famous Americans, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, Maryland, 1955, no catalogue.
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1955.
1956
American Paintings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1956.
1969
Inaugural Exhibition: American Portraits, The Art Museum, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, 1969, no catalogue.
1992
Extended loan for use by Ambassador William Fitzgerald, U.S. Embassy residence, Dublin, Ireland, 1992-1993.
1993
Extended loan for use by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, U.S. Embassy residence, Dublin, Ireland, 1993-1998.
1998
Extended loan for use by Ambassador Michael J. Sullivan, and subsequent ambassadors, U.S. Embassy residence, Dublin, Ireland, 1998-2018.
Bibliography
1867
Tuckerman 1867, 110
1926
Park 1926, 296, no. 258
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.
1964
Harris, Paul S. "Gilbert Stuart and a Portrait of Mrs. Sarah Apthorp Morton." Winterthur Portfolio 1 (1964): 198-220
Mount 1964, 367
1969
Watson, Ross. "Irish Portraits in American Collections." Quarterly Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society 12 no. 2 (April-June 1969): 40-41, 43, 48 repro.
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: 229, repro.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 350, 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: 216-219, repro. 217.
Wikidata ID
Q20180323