The Hon. Sir Francis Burton Conyngham

c. 1790/1795

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 75.9 x 63.9 cm (29 7/8 x 25 3/16 in.)
    framed: 101 x 87.6 x 6.4 cm (39 3/4 x 34 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1947.17.102

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Painted for the sitter, the Hon. Sir Francis Nathaniel Pierpont Burton Conyngham [1766-1832], County Clare [Ireland]; by descent to his grandson William Conyngham Vandeleur Burton [1846-1919], Carrigaholt Castle, County Clare;[1] from whose estate it was sold to (Tooth Brothers), London, from whom it was purchased 16 March 1920 by (G.S. Sedgwick) for Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York, as by Gilbert Stuart;[1] sold by Clarke's executors to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), from whom it was purchased 29 January 1936, as part of the Clarke collection, by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift to NGA, 1947.
[1] Clarke's purchase from Tooth is according to 1928 Clarke exhibition catalogue annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library). The painting probably passed through William Burton's father, Henry Stuart Burton [d. 1867], and perhaps also through the latter's eldest son, William's older brother Francis Nathaniel Valentine Burton [d. 1883]. See Burke's Peerage, Limited, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 105th ed. (London, 1970), 627.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1922

  • Portraits Painted in Europe by Early American Artists, The Union League Club, New York, January 1922, no. 6, as Sir Francis N. P. Conyngham by Gilbert Stuart.

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 Sir Francis N. P. Conyngham by Gilbert Stuart.

1968

  • Loan for display with the permanent collection, Boyhood Home of Robert E. Lee, Alexandria, Virginia, 1968-1986.

Bibliography

1926

  • Park, Lawrence. Gilbert Stuart. 4 vols. New York, 1926: 1:no. 182.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 166, repro., as Honorable Sir Francis N. P. Burton (?).

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 48, repro., as Honorable Sir Francis N.P. Burton (?).

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 309, as Honorably Sir Francis N. P. Burton (?).

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 20, repro.

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: 304-305, repro. 304.

Wikidata ID

Q20179781

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