Portrait of Dewitt Clinton

Details

REMBRANDT PEALE (1778-1860)
Portrait of Dewitt Clinton
oil on canvas
27 1/2 x 22 in. (69.9 x 55.9 cm.)
Painted circa 1823.

Provenance

The Peale Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.
M. Thomas & Sons Auctioneers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 6 October 1854, lot 112.
Ferdinand J. Dreer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1854.
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 12 June 1902.
The Philadelphia History Museum at Atwater Kent, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Christie's, New York, 29 September 2010, lot 85, sold by the above.
Acquired by the late owner from the above.

Literature

W. Sawitzky, Paintings and Miniatures in The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1942, p. 27.
N.B. Wainwright, Paintings and Miniatures at The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1974, p. 160.
Frick Art Reference Library, no. 121-15 xx.

Exhibited

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Academy of the Fine Arts, Loan Exhibition of Historical Portraits, 1887, pp. 25-16, no. 86.
Baltimore, Maryland, Municipal Museum of Baltimore, Exhibition of Paintings by Rembrandt Peale, November 29, 1937-January 2, 1938, p. 7, no. 7.
Baltimore, Maryland, The Peale Museum, Rendezvous for Taste: Peale’s Baltimore Museum, 1814-1830, February 24-April 22, 1956, p. 27, no. 69.
Washington, D.C., The National Portrait Gallery, In Pursuit of Fame: Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860, November 6, 1992-February 7, 1993, p. 140, fig. 73.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Tylee Abbott Senior Vice President, Head of American Art

tabbott@christies.com +1 212 707 5925

Lot Essay

A patron of the American Academy of the Fine Arts, DeWitt Clinton was a statesman who served as mayor of New York City and governor of New York. He was the principal advocate for the construction of the Erie Canal. In 1823 Peale wrote to his father regarding the present portrait which he describes as having been painted in his “new manner” (Frick Art Reference Library, no. 121-15 xx). He paints Clinton against a background of glowing golden clouds which he utilized in many of his portraits painted in New York in the early 1820s (Lillian B. Miller, In Pursuit of Fame: Rembrandt Peale 1778-1860 (Washington, D.C., 1992), p. 266).

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