Portrait of a Lady

Provenance

(Rose M. [Mrs. Augustus] de Forest, New York); sold 12 October 1926 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848- 1931], New York, as a portrait of Williamina Moore by Robert Feke;[1] sold 29 January 1936 by Clarke's executors through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), as part of the Clarke collection, to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift to NGA, 1942. [1] According to 1928 Clarke exhibition catalogue annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library).The provenance from Colonel John Moore of New York, uncle of the supposed sitter, supplied by the dealer, de Forest, has been shown by archival research to be spurious: James Lane and Anna Rutledge, report on the Clarke collection, 1952, quoted by William P. Campbell, memorandum, 3 May 1966, in NGA curatorial files. Campbell sums up the provenance as "completely untenable."

Portrait of a Lady

Highmore, Joseph

c. 1730/1735

Accession Number

1942.8.5

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 91.6 x 71 cm (36 1/16 x 27 15/16 in.) | framed: 108 x 88.3 x 5.7 cm (42 1/2 x 34 3/4 x 2 1/4 in.)

Classification

Painting

Museum

National Gallery of Art

Washington, D.C., United States

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection