Identification and Creation
Object Number
1943.163
People
Benjamin West, American (Springfield, PA 1738 - 1820 London, England)
Title
Self-Portrait
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1818
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230416
Physical Descriptions
Medium
Oil on wood panel
Dimensions
92.1 x 74.3 cm (36 1/4 x 29 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: l.l.: By...and Dec 10 17...Royal Academy London.
Provenance
Probably part of the artist's estate at his death and sold by his sons through Robins, London, June 20-22, 1829; Percy A. Rockefeller, New York; to his wife, Isabel S. Rockefeller, New York, 1935; Ehrich Galleries, New York; Knoedler & Co. Inc, New York, 1942; sold to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, NY, 1942; his bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights
Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.163
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.
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Publication History

Lionel Cust, History of the Society of Dilettanti (London, England, 1898), pp. 230-231

City Art Museum of St. Louis, An Exhibition of Early American Portraiture 1750-1850. Supplement to the Bulletin of the Saint Louis Museum, exh. cat. (St. Louis, MO, 1930), p. 10, no. 42

The Percy A. Rockefeller Loan Collection of American Historical Portraits, exh. cat., University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA, 1939), p. 20, no. 33

Portraits of Twelve American Artists by Themselves and Their Friends, exh. cat., Knoedler Galleries (New York, NY, 1942), no. 2

Fogg Art Museum and Benjamin Rowland, Jr., Real and Ideal in American Art, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA, Summer 1948), cat. 3

Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, Peter G. Huenink, Earl A. Powell III, Harry Z. Rand, and Nanette C. Sexton, American Art at Harvard, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), cat. 13, ill.

Ann C. van Devanter, "Benjamin West and His Self-Portraits", The Magazine Antiques (April 1973), pp. 764-771, p. 770

John Dillenberger, Benjamin West: The Context of His Life's Work With Particular Attention to Paintings with Religious Subject Matter, Trinity University Press (San Antonio, TX, 1977), p. 7, fig. 3

Ann Uhry Abrams, The Valiant Hero: Benjamin West and Grand-Style History Painting, Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, D.C, 1985), pp. 22-24, fig. 7, and note 11, p. 212

Ann Uhry Abrams, The Valiant Hero: Benjamin West and Grand-Style History Painting, Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, DC, 1985), pp. 22-24, 212, fig. 7, and note 11, p. 212

Helmut von Erffa and Allen Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1986), pp. 452-53, no. 529

Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, Volume One: Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Artists Born before 1826, Yale University Press (U.S.) and Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge and New Haven, 2014), pp. 518-19, cat. 485, ill.

Exhibition History

Early American Portraiture, City Art Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, 11/01/1930 - 11/30/1930

The Percy A. Rockefeller Loan Collection of American Historical Portraits, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 11/14/1939 - 12/31/1939

Portraits of Twelve American Artists by Themselves and their Friends, Knoedler & Co. Inc., New York, 03/01/1942 - 03/31/1942; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 04/01/1942 - 04/15/1942; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 05/01/1942 - 06/01/1942

Real and Ideal in American Art, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/01/1948 - 09/01/1948

American Art at Harvard, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/19/1972 - 06/18/1972

The Persistence of Memory: Continuity and Change in American Cultures, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/29/1995 - 05/13/2001

For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004

Subjects and Contexts

Google Art Project

Related Works

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu