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Identification and Creation

Object Number
H245
People
Francis Alexander, American (Killingly, CT 1800 - 1880 Florence, Italy)
Mrs. Jared (Mary Crowninshield Silsbee) Sparks (1809 - 1887)
Title
Mary Crowninshield Silsbee Sparks (Mrs. Jared Sparks) (1809-1887)
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1830
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/300060

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
76.9 x 63.1 cm (30 1/4 x 24 13/16 in.)
framed: 99.1 x 86.4 x 12.1 cm (39 x 34 x 4 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: and inscribed on verso: Alexander/1830 Washington, D.C./ Miss Silsbee/M.C.S.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Benjamin and Mary Silsbee, parents of the sitter, Washington, DC, and Salem, 1830; descent in family to Mary Crowninshield Silsbee Sparks (sitter) and Jared Sparks; descent in family to Lizzie Sparks Pickering (Mrs. Edward Charles Pickering), 1887; to Harvard University, 1919.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard University Portrait Collection, Bequest of Lizzie Sparks Pickering to Harvard University, 1919
Object Number
H245
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Laura M. Huntsinger, Harvard Portraits: A Catalogue of Portrait Paintings at Harvard University, ed. Alan Burroughs, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1936), p. 128
  • Alan Burroughs, Limners and Likenesses: Three Centuries of American Painting, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1936), p. 127, fig. 108
  • Edgar P. Richardson, American Romantic Painting, ed. Robert Freund, E. Weyhe (New York, NY, 1944), p. 23, no. 81, ill.
  • Edgar P. Richardson, Painting in America: The Story of 450 Years, Thomas Y. Crowell Company (New York, NY, 1956), p. 204, fig. 96
  • William J. Hennessey, The American Portrait: From the Death of Stuart to the Rise of Sargent, exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum (Worcester, MA, 1973), pp. 23-24, fig. 15
  • James R. Mellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times, Houghton Mifflin Company (Boston, MA, 1980), fig. 9
  • Jane Turner, The Encyclopedia of American Art before 1914, Macmillan Publishers Limited (London, England, 2000), p. 6
  • Brenda Wineapple, Hawthorne: A Life, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (New York, 2003), ill. p. 98
  • 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), p. 44-45, cat. 3, ill.

Exhibition History

  • Painting in America, The Story of 450 Years, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, 04/23/1957 - 06/09/1957
  • From the Death of Stuart to the Rise of Sargent, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, 04/26/1973 - 06/03/1973

Verification Level

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