Samuel Alleyne Otis
1811/1813
Painter, American, 1755 - 1828
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on wood
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 71.6 x 57.8 cm (28 3/16 x 22 3/4 in.)
framed: 91.4 x 77.5 x 10.2 cm (36 x 30 1/2 x 4 in.) -
Accession
1980.11.2
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
The sitter's son, Harrison Gray Otis [1765-1848], Boston;[1] his son, James William Otis [1800-1869], New York;[2] his widow, Martha Church Otis [d. 1888], New York; their grandson, Harrison Gray Otis [1856-1915], Nahant and Needham, Massachusetts;[3] his son, William Alleyne Otis [b. 1895], Boston;[4] purchased by Virginia Pratt Thayer [Mrs. Robert Helyer Thayer, d. 1979], Washington, D.C.[5]; bequest 1980 to NGA.
[1] For his dates see William A. Otis, A Genealogical and Historical Memoir of the Otis Family in America, Chicago, 1924, 141. This portrait shares its provenance with John Singleton Copley's portraits of the sitter's wife Elizabeth Gray Otis [NGA 1980.11.1] and father-in-law Harrison Gray [NGA 1976.25.1].
[2] For his dates see Otis 1924, 202.
[3] Clarence W. Bowen, ed., The History of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington as the First President of the United States, New York, 1892, 517. For his dates and places of residence see Otis 1924, 495. Records in the registrar's office, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, give the painting's owners from 1917 to 1926 as Robert H. Gardiner, Robert H. Gardiner, Jr., and William Tudor Gardiner (letter from Jennifer Abel, 26 October 1990; NGA curatorial file). Perhaps they were acting as trustees or executors of the estate of Harrison Gray Otis.
[4] 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, 565-566; for his birth date see Otis 1924, 608.
[5] Robert Helyer Thayer [1901-1984] was William Otis' cousin; see Otis 1924, 496; Robert Thayer's mother Violet Otis Thayer was Harrison Gray Otis' sister. Mrs. Thayer's Last Will and Testament, dated 1 April 1976, states that she held ownership of the portrait; the purchase is documented in Robert Thayer's letter of 13 May 1976 to J. Carter Brown (NGA General Counsel files). The painting was delivered to the Thayers on 22 June 1949 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, on the authority of William A. Otis. Mrs. Thayer's date of death is recorded in the NGA curatorial file. Thayer is listed in Who's Who in America, 38th ed., Chicago, 1974, 3056, and The New York Times Biographical Service, 24 vols. (and continuing), New York, 1969-, 1984, 143. Adrian Lamb painted a copy of this portrait in 1976 for the Thayers.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1828
Exhibition of Portraits painted by the late Gilbert Stuart, Esq., Boston Athenaeum, 1828, no. 36
Second Exhibition of Paintings, Boston Athenaeum, 1828, no. 214
1853
The Washington Exhibition in aid of the New-York Gallery of the Fine Arts, at the American Art-Union Gallery, New York, 1853, no. 10
1892
Old State-House, Boston, 1892
1914
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1914-1949
1928
Gilbert Stuart Memorial Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1928, no. 49
1989
A Necessary Fence: The Senate's First Century, United States Senate, Washington, 1989, no. 19
Bibliography
1808
Journal of Samuel Alleyne Otis, 1808-1814. Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.
1879
Mason, George C. The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart. New York, 1879: 235.
1880
"Portraits Painted by Stuart...taken from Mason's Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart." In Exhibition of Portraits Painted by Gilbert Stuart. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1880: 50, no. 449.
1892
Bowen, Clarence W., ed. The History of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington. New York, 1892: repro. opp. 45, 517.
1924
Otis, William A. A Genealogical and Historical Memoir of the Otis Family in America. Chicago, 1924: 106, repro. opp. 106.
1926
Park 1926, 565-566, no. 601, repro.
1968
Shipton, Clifford K., ed. Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 14: Biographical Sketches of those who attended Harvard College in the Classes 1756-1760. Boston, 1968: 471-480, repro. between 328 and 329.
1969
Morison, Samuel Eliot. Harrison Gray Otis, 1765-1848, The Urbane Federalist. Boston, 1969: 4-6, 22, repro. 25, 39-40, 53.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 354, 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: 253-254, color repro. 255.
2000
Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1. New Haven, 2000: 25-26, fig. 29-30, 268 n.18.
2003
The Worlds of Jacob Eichholtz, Portrait Painter of the Early Republic. Exh. cat. Lancaster County History Society, Pennsylvania (plus two other simultaneous venues), 2003: 46, fig. 2.13, repro. 108.
Wikidata ID
Q20183327