H208: Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400)

Identification and Creation

Object Number

H208

People

Unidentified Artist
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340? - 1400)

Title

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400)

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

painting

Date

c. 1400

Places

Creation Place: Europe, United Kingdom

Culture

British

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/299909

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Oil on panel

Dimensions

48.5 x 38.1 cm (19 1/8 x 15 in.)
framed: 70.8 x 63.2 x 10.2 cm (27 7/8 x 24 7/8 x 4 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• inscription: Inscription on verso, now illegible, reported to say: "This picture was presented by Miss Frances Lambert to Benjamin Dyke on the 6th September, 1803, to perpetuate the memory of her late invaluable relation, Thomas Stokes, Esq., of Llanshaw Court, in the county of Gloucester, where it was preserved for more than three centuries, as appears from the inventory of pictures in the possession of that ancient and respectable family..."[see file]
• (not assigned): Brass plaque on frame: "Bequeathed to Harvard University Library 1908/ By Charles Eliot Norton in Memory of Two Lovers of Chaucer/ Francis James Child and James Russell Lowell"
• (not assigned): Coat of arms in upper left with date underneath, "1400" (?).

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Family of Stokes, Llanshow Court, Gloucester, Eng., owners for three centuries.
Miss Frances Lambert.
Gift to Benjamin Dyke, 1803.
John P. Seddon, owner c.1866.
Nephew and niece of Seddon's wife, named Bulford.
Sold to Fairfax Murray.
Sold to James Loeb.
Gift to Charles Eliot Norton.
Bequest to Widener Library, 1908.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard University Portrait Collection, Bequest of Charles Eliot Norton to Widener Library in memory of Francis James Child and James Russell Lowell, 1908

Object Number

H208

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

• Laura M. Huntsinger, Harvard Portraits: A Catalogue of Portrait Paintings at Harvard University, ed. Alan Burroughs, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1936), pp. 37-38
• Roger Sherman Loomis, A Mirror of Chaucer's World, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ, 1963)
• John T. Bethell, Richard M. Hunt, and Robert Shenton, Harvard A to Z, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 2004), p. 277

Verification Level