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Identification and Creation

Object Number
H193
People
Frederic Porter Vinton, American (Bangor, ME 1846 - 1911 Boston, MA)
Charles Devens (1820-1891)
Title
Charles Devens (1820-1891)
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1891
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/311243

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
126.9 x 92 cm (49 15/16 x 36 1/4 in.)
framed: 166.4 x 131.8 x 13.3 cm (65 1/2 x 51 7/8 x 5 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.l.: 1891 / Frederic P. Vinton
  • label: bottom of frame, wood: CHARLES DEVENS/1820-1891/F.P. VINTON
  • (not assigned): verso: Gen. Charles Devens / U. S. Attorney-Gen. / This copy was made in 1891 from the original / portrait in possession of the U. S. Government, Washington / Frederic P Vinton, N.A. Boston / Commissioned by A. Lithgow Devens, Esq. and Misses Devens

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Commissioned in 1891 by Arthur Lithgow Devens, Mary Devens, and Agnes (Devens) Osborn, the nephew and nieces of Charles Devens, after an 1884 version of the painting by Frederic P. Vinton.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard University Portrait Collection, Gift of Arthur Lithgow Devens and his sisters, 1891
Object Number
H193
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
An earlier 1884 version of Devens's portrait by Vinton hangs in the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

Publication History

  • William Garrott Brown, A List of Portraits in the Various Buildings of Harvard University, Harvard University Library (Cambridge, MA, 1898), p. 15
  • Laura M. Huntsinger, Harvard Portraits: A Catalogue of Portrait Paintings at Harvard University, ed. Alan Burroughs, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1936), p. 46, ill. p. 47
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 381, cat. 414, ill.

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