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DEACESSIONED June 28, 2012
Portrait of a British Naval Captain
Richard Wilson (British, 1714–1782)
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
127 x 101.6 cm (50 x 40 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Henry Lee Shattuck in memory of the late Morris Gray
Accession Number1983.36
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
InscriptionsLower left, on cannon: R. Wilson f. / [...]
ProvenanceReverend Henry Stewart Gladstone, Hazelwood, Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, England [see note 1]. 1930, sold by the Casson Galleries, Boston, to Henry Lee Shattuck (b. 1879 - d. 1971), Boston and Brookline, MA; 1971, passed to his estate; 1983, gift of the estate of Henry Lee Shattuck to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 12, 1983)
NOTES:
[1] When the Casson Galleries sold this painting to Henry Lee Shattuck in 1930, it was considered a portrait of General Thomas Gage. The gallery wrote to Shattuck that "this portrait came from the collection of Rev. Henry Steuart [sic] Gladstone of Hazelwood, Hertfordshire, who married Mary, eldest daughter of Lieut. General, The Hon. Edward Thomas Gage, C. B. ... It comes through an agent who had it to sell for the estate." Since the identification of the sitter has since come into question, it seems unlikely that the painting descended from Gage to Reverend Gladstone.
NOTES:
[1] When the Casson Galleries sold this painting to Henry Lee Shattuck in 1930, it was considered a portrait of General Thomas Gage. The gallery wrote to Shattuck that "this portrait came from the collection of Rev. Henry Steuart [sic] Gladstone of Hazelwood, Hertfordshire, who married Mary, eldest daughter of Lieut. General, The Hon. Edward Thomas Gage, C. B. ... It comes through an agent who had it to sell for the estate." Since the identification of the sitter has since come into question, it seems unlikely that the painting descended from Gage to Reverend Gladstone.