Harbor at Sunset
late 17th century
Painter
Artwork overview
-
Medium
oil on canvas
-
Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 49 x 66.5 cm (19 5/16 x 26 3/16 in.)
framed: 70.5 x 88.3 x 7.6 cm (27 3/4 x 34 3/4 x 3 in.) -
Accession
1949.1.8
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Thomas Emmerson [d. 1955], London;[1] sold 1830 through (John Smith [1781-1855], London) to George John Vernon, 5th baron Vernon [1803-1866], Sudbury Hall, Derby; possibly (Vernon sale, Christie & Manson, London, 1831); sold to Norton. Brook Greville; (his sale, Christie & Manson, London, 30 April 1836, no. 73); (William Seguier, London).[1] Mary Louisa Whyte [Mrs. Mark Anthony Whyte, d. 1853], Barrow Hill, Rocester, Staffordshire; by inheritance with the house to her niece, Louisa Jane Finch, probably by 1870; by inheritance with the house to her stepson, Captain Arthur Finch Dawson, by 1879; (Dawson sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 14 December 1928, no. 122); (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., London); on consignment or joint account 1931 with (M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York, and Paris). acquired before 1941 by R. Horace Gallatin [1871-1948], New York;[2] gift 1949 to NGA.
[1] See Charles Sebag-Montefiore, with Julia I. Armstrong-Totten, A Dynasty of Dealers: John Smith and Successors 1801-1824, The Roxburghe Club, London, 2013: 21.
[2] There was no sale of Vernon paintings at Christie's on 26 May 1831 as indicated by Marcel Roethlisberger, Claude Lorrain: The Paintings, 2 vols., New Haven, 1961(reprint 1979), 1:536, no. 281 (citing John Smith, A Catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French painters..., 9 vols., London, 1829-1842: 8[1837]:446, no. 424). There was a Vernon sale a year later, on 26 May 1832, but the NGA painting was not in it. This painting is probably the View in a Bay, a Boat in Front, sold anonymously in 1831 to Norton, as recorded in George Redford, Art Sales: A History of Sales of Pictures and Other Works of Art, 2 vols., London, 1888: 2:275. Roethlisberger also incorrectly gives the day of the 1836 Greville sale as April 23, and spells Greville's first name with a final "e" that does not appear on the auction catalogue's title page.
[3] The painting was included in Gallatin's initial offer of his collection to the NGA, which was accepted on an "if and when" basis in 1941; see NGA curatorial files.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1879
Exhibition of works by the old masters. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1879, no. 96.
1902
Exhibition of works by the old masters: including a special collection of paintings and drawings by Claude. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1902, no. 60.
1989
Extended loan for use by Secretary Samuel Skinner, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C., 1989-1992.
1992
Extended loan for use by Secretary Andrew H. Card, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C., 1992-1993.
1993
Extended loan for use by Secretary Federico Pena, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C., 1993-1998.
1998
Extended loan for use by Secretary Rodney Slater, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C., 1998-2001.
2015
Extended loan for use by Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., 2015.
Bibliography
1829
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 8(1837):446, no. 424.
1961
Röthlisberger, Marcel. Claude Lorrain: The Paintings. 2 vols. New Haven, 1961 (reprint New York, 1979): 1:536, no. 281, as Coast Scene, under "the most notable imitations," 2:fig. 420.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 28, as School of Claude Lorrain
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 19, repro., as School of Claude Lorrain
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 72, repro., as School of Claude Lorrain
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 91, repro.
2009
Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 21, 107-109, color repro.
2013
Sebag-Montefiore, Charles, with Julia I. Armstrong-Totten. A Dynasty of Dealers: John Smith and Successors 1801-1924: A Study of the Art Market in Nineteenth-Century London. Arundel and London, 2013: 21.
Wikidata ID
Q20177310