PORTRAITS BY JUNE 29 TO AUGUST l • 1936 AT THE GALLERIES OF M. KNOEDLER & COMPANY NEWPORT RHODE ISLAND As A contribution to the Newport Tercentenary observation we feel that in no way can we make a more fitting offering than by holding an exhibition of paintings by Gilbert Stuart. Nar- ragansett was the birthplace and boyhood home of America's greatest artist and a Newport celebration would be grievously lacking which did not contain recognition of this. In arranging this important exhibition no effort has been made to give a chronological nor yet an historical survey of Stuart's portraits, rather have we aimed to show a collection of paintings which exemplifies the strength as well as the charm and grace of Stuart's work. This has required that we include portraits he painted in Ireland and England as well as those done in America. His place will always stand among the great portrait painters of the world. 1 GEORGE WASHINGTON Canvas, 25 x 30 inches. Painted, 1795. This portrait of George Washington, showing the right side of the face is known as the Vaughan type, so called for the owner of the first of the type, in contradistinction to the Athenaeum portrait depicting the left side of the face. Park catalogues fifteen of the Vaughan por­ traits and seventy-four of the Athenaeum portraits. "Philadelphia, 1795. Canvas, 30 x 25 inches. Bust, showing the right side of the face; powdered hair, black coat, white neckcloth and linen shirt ruffle. The background is plain and of a soft crimson and ma­ roon color. "This portrait was painted for Alexander Scott (died 1810) of Lan­ caster, Pennsylvania. It was inherited by his widow, who sold it to Edward Brien (died 1816) of Mattocks Iron Works, Pennsylvania. At his death it passed to his widow (Dorothy Hand), who moved to Lancaster, and from her it was inherited by her daughter, the wife of Henry Rogers of Lancaster. Mrs. Rogers sold the portrait to Edward Reilly, who married her daughter, Anne Rogers of Trenton, New Jersey, and at his death it was inherited by his widow, who in 1907 sold it to Charles Allen Munn of New York City, who bequeathed it to his sister, Augusta, wife of I. Sheldon Tilney, Esq., of Llewellyn Park, New Jersey. "(See 'Some Old-Time Lancaster Portraits of Washington,' by Judge C. I. Landis, published by the Lancaster Historical Society, February 2, 1917, Volume XXI, No. 2; also 'Three Types of Wash- ington Portraits' by Charles A. Munn, 1906; also, 'New York Sun,' January 21, 1917, 'Tracing Pedigrees of two Stuart's Washingtons' by Charles Henry Hart)." —From "Gilbert Stuart" by Lawrence Park, Volume II, pages 847 and 848. EXHIBITED: Union League Club, New York. Yale Art School, New Haven, Con­ necticut. Gallery of Alexander Turney Stewart, New York. Metro­ politan Museum of Art, New York, July, 1924. Colony Club, New York, April, 1922, No. 11. Wilmington Society of Fine Arts, April, 1935, No. 2. San Francisco, 1935; REPRODUCED NO. 38 of catalogue. REPRODUCED: Half-tone, "International Studio," February, 1923, page 390. "Gilbert Stuart's Portraits of George Washington" by Mantle Fielding, 1923, facing page 20. "Life Portraits of George Washington" by John Hill Morgan and Mantle Fielding (1931), page 252 (facing); CATALOGUED No. 4. "Three Types of Washington Portraits" by Charles A. Munn, facing page 43. 2 MR. WILLIAM BAYARD Canvas, 28 x 36 inches. Painted about 1794. From Lawrence Park's "Gilbert Stuart," Volume I, page 142, No. 69, we quote the following: "... A son of Colonel William Bayard of Castle Point, New Jersey, and New York City, who was one of the loyalists mentioned by name in the Act of Attainder of 1784; he and his entire family, excepting young William Bayard, thereupon left New York and never returned. All the family property was confiscated. In 1782 William Bayard married Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Cornell of New York, who had gone to Newberne, North Carolina. At the outbreak of the Revo­ lution Mr. Cornell was obliged to leave North Carolina and come under English protection to New York. William Bayard formed a partnership with Herman Le Roy, who married another daughter of Samuel Cornell, and started the business house of Le Roy, Bayard & Company, which was for many years one of the best known concerns of New York City." REPRODUCED: "Gilbert Stuart" by Lawrence Park, Volume III, No. 69. 3 MRS. WILLIAM BAYARD Panel, 27 x 36 inches. Painted 1805-15. Mrs. Bayard was the daughter-in-law of the above mentioned William Bayard. REPRODUCED: "Art in America," June, 1933, page 85; MENTIONED in an article by William Sawitzky as follows: "The hitherto unrecorded Portrait of Mrs. William Bayard, Jr., born Catherine Hammond of North Caro­ lina. ... Early in 1926 this painting came into the possession of a de­ scendant, Mr. Howard Townsend of New York City, who up to that time had not known of its existence. It was, however, too late to in­ clude it in Park's book, which had just gone to press. The dates of Mrs. Bayard's birth and marriage do not seem to be known, but it is quite evident that the portrait was painted between the years 1805- 1815." EXHIBITED: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1924 and 1925. COLLECTIONS: The portrait was inherited by his daughter, Mrs. Duncan P. Campbell, and at her death became the property of her children, who by succes­ sive wills left it to Maria L. Campbell, the youngest and only surviv­ ing child. In 1912 the portrait was inherited by the present owner, Howard Townsend, Esq. of New York City, great-grandson of the subject. 4 THE RIGHT HONORABLE JOHN BERESFORD Canvas, 25 x 30 inches. Inscribed on label on back of stretcher: "The Right Honorable John Beresford of the Irish Government. Brother of the Archbishop of Tuam, the first Lord Decies. Painted by G. Stewart (Stuart), ENGRAVED by W Sharp, March 25th 1796." ENGRAVED in mezzotint by C. H. Hodges, published in 1790 by G. Cowan; also by W Sharp as mentioned in the above inscription. Right Hon. John Beresford was the second son of Marcus, first Earl of Tyrone, and Lady Catherine Baroness de la Poer. He was educated at Kilkenny and at Trinity College, Dublin, from where he was grad- uated in 1757, and called to the bar in 1790. In 1760 he married Con- stantia Ligondes of Auvergne, and in the same year, on the death of George II, he was elected to the Irish Parliament for Waterford. In 1766 he was appointed Privy Councillor and two years later one of the Commissioners of Revenue. His first wife having died in 1772, he married in 1774 Barbara Montgomery, daughter of Sir William Mont­ gomery, one of the three beautiful sisters painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in his celebrated picture, "The Three Graces Decorating Hymen," bequeathed to the London National Gallery in 1837. In 1780 Beresford became First Commissioner of Revenue and succeeded in obtaining an immense influence in Irish politics; he was in a sense "the power behind the throne." The Lord Lieutenant for the time being was the de facto ruler of Ireland, but Beresford's was the brain that planned improvements and watched that they were carried out. He enjoyed the confidence of William Pitt, Prime Minister of Eng­ land, and in 1786 was appointed Privy Councillor of England. Beres­ ford was one of the leading advocates for the union of the two coun­ tries in parliamentary matters. His "Correspondence," which was almost exclusively political, was published in 1854. MENTIONED: "Paintings by Gilbert Stuart Not Mentioned in Mason's Life of Stuart" by Mantle Fielding in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, July, 1914. "Dictionary of Irish Artists" by W G. Strick­ land, Volume II, page 413. REPRODUCED: "Gilbert Stuart" by Lawrence Park, Volume III. CATALOGUED Volume I, No. 77, pages 148 and 149. COLLECTIONS: The painting was inherited by the brother of the sitter, the Honorable & Rev. William Beresford, Archbishop of Tuam, created in 1812 Baron Decies and now comes from the great-great-grandson of the sitter. 5 MRS. ISAAC CHAUNCEY Panel, 21x26 inches. Mrs. Chauncey was the wife of Commander Isaac Chauncey, who was acting Captain of the Chesapeake in 1802, and later Commander of New York Navy Yard; from 1833 to 1840 he was the President of the Board of Navy Commissioners. EXHIBITED: The Union Club in 1934. Inherited by Mr. E. Chauncey Anderson, who was the great-great- grandson of the sitter; and is owned jointly with Mrs. Horatio C. Wood, III, who is also the present owner of the crescent pin worn by the subject of the picture. 6 COLONEL JOHN CHESNUT Canvas, 24/2 x 30 inches. Painted, 1800. Colonel John Chesnut was born in the Valley of Virginia, and later moved to South Carolina. He was a member of the convention to frame the Constitution, and later became a member of the Senate. In 1770 he married Sarah Cantey, daughter of Captain John Cantey, of Camden, South Carolina. EXHIBITED: Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, at the Tercentenary Exhibition held March, 1936, No. 18. The picture comes from Miss Mary Brown of Camden, South Caro­ lina, who is great-granddaughter of the sitter. The picture has re­ mained in the possession of the family since it was painted. 7 THE RIGHT HONORABLE WILLIAM BURTON CONYNGHAM Canvas, 29% x 35% inches. Painted about 1789-90. William Burton, younger son of the Rt. Hon. Francis Burton of Bun- craggy, County Clare, M.P., and his wife, Mary, daughter of Major General Henry Conyngham of Slane, was born in 1733.