Portrait of a Gentleman

c. 1650/1655

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 55.5 x 48 cm (21 7/8 x 18 7/8 in.)
    framed: 71.4 x 63.5 x 4.1 cm (28 1/8 x 25 x 1 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1947.17.91

Media for this artwork is unavailable and the object is not on view. See artworks now on view

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Rose M. [Mrs. Augustus] de Forest, New York); sold 29 December 1924 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York, as a portrait of Richard Bellingham by William Read;[1] sold by Clarke's executors through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), 29 January 1936, as part of the Clarke collection, by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift to NGA, 1947.
[1] According to 1928 Clarke catalogue annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library). The provenance from Captain Edward Pelham, nephew of Mrs. Bellingham, supplied by the dealer, de Forest, cannot be verified. See William P. Campbell, memorandum, 22 November 1965, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1925

  • A Loan Exhibition of the Earliest Known Portraits of Americans Painted in This County by Painters of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, The Century Association, New York, 1925, no. 6, as Richard Bellingham by William Read.

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 Richard Bellingham by William Read.

Bibliography

1932

  • Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. Early American Painting. New York and London, 1932: 6-8, pl. 1.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 172, repro., as by European of Unknown Nationality.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 308, as by Unknown [Formerly Considered American].

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 407, repro., as by Unknown Nationality 17th Century.

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: 291-292, repro. 292.

Inscriptions

falsely inscribed, reverse in ink: Govr.Ri. / Bellingham Effiegies [sic] / Delind Boston Anno Dom. 1641 / Aetatis 49 W.R.

Wikidata ID

Q20177337

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