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Richard Teller Crane
Anders Leonard Zorn (Swedish, 1860–1920)
Swedish
1904
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Framed: 152.4 x 121.9 cm (60 x 48 in.)
Overall: 116.8 x 83.8 cm (46 x 33 in.)
Overall: 116.8 x 83.8 cm (46 x 33 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the descendants of Frances Crane Lillie
Accession Number2013.667
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Swedish painter Anders Zorn was popular among American politicians and businessmen for his ability to imbue his sitters with a worldly and sophisticated, yet approachable, air. His subject here, Richard Teller Crane (1832–1912), was an industrialist and plumbing magnate, considered one of the most successful entrepreneurs of his day. Zorn intensifies Crane’s commanding presence through his depiction of the man’s direct, penetrating stare and cigar in hand. This portrait hung for many years at the Crane Company headquarters in Chicago and later passed to Crane’s descendents.
Provenance1904, commissioned from the artist by the sitter, Richard Teller Crane (b. 1832 – d. 1912), Pasadena, CA and later hung at the Crane Company, Chicago; about 1950s, by descent to his daughter, Frances Crane Lillie (b. 1869 – d. 1958), Chicago; to her daughter, Catherine Lillie Bacon (b. 1899); by inheritance to her son, Charles Bacon, Woods Hole, MA; 2013, gift of Charles Bacon to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 26, 2013)