Gilbert Stuart (North Kingston 1775-1828 Boston)

Portrait of Counsellor John Dunn, half-length

Details

Gilbert Stuart (North Kingston 1775-1828 Boston)
Portrait of Counsellor John Dunn, half-length
oil on canvas, laid down on panel
23½ x 22¾ in. (59.7 x 57.8 cm.)

Provenance

Painted c. 1794 and retained by the artist, and by descent to his daughter, Miss Jane Stuart, Newport, R.I., from whom acquired in 1880 by
J. Montgomery Sears, Boston, and by descent to Helen Sears Bradley (Mrs. J.D. Cameron Bradley), Southboro, Massachusetts; Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 20 November 1947, lot 32.

Literature

H.T. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists: American Artist Life Comprising Biographical and Critical Sketches of American Artists, New York, 1867, p. 110.
G.C. Mason, The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart, New York, 1879, p. 176.
L. 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, New York, 1926, p. 294, no. 256.
E.G. Miles, American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, Washington, D.C., 1995, pp. 216, 218.

Exhibited

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1924.

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Lot Essay

An Irish barrister and M.P., John Dunn traveled to the United States around 1797. Stuart used this study, which George C. Mason (loc. cit.) noted in 1879 Stuart "would never part with", for two finished portraits now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Miss Jane Stuart's original bill of sale to Mr. Sears will be included with this lot.

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