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James Madison
Gilbert Stuartc. 1821
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
Information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication _American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century_, pages 265-266, 268-270, and 275-277, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/american-paintings-18th-century.pdf
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Details
- Title: James Madison
- Creator: Gilbert Stuart
- Date Created: c. 1821
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 65.3 x 54.3 cm (25 11/16 x 21 3/8 in.) framed: 88.9 x 79.4 x 12.1 cm (35 x 31 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.)
- Provenance: Colonel George Gibbs [1776-1833], "Sunswick Farm," Astoria, New York;[1] his widow, Laura Wolcott Gibbs [1794-1870], New York;[2] sold through (Jacob Hart Lazarus [1822-1891], New York) in 1872 to Thomas Jefferson Coolidge [1831-1920], Boston;[3] his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge III [1893-1959], Boston;[4] his son, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge IV, Boston; sold 1979 to NGA. [1] On Gibbs see George Gibbs, _The Gibbs Family of Rhode Island and Some Related Families_, New York, 1933, 18-21, _Dictionary of American Biography_, 20 vols., New York, 1928-1936, reprinted in 10 vols. with 8 supplements, New York, 1944-1988, 4 (part 1):244-245, and Stephen Dow Beckham, "Colonel George Gibbs," In _Benjamin Silliman and his Circle: Studies on The Influence of Benjamin Silliman on Science in America,_ edited by Leonard G. Wilson, New York, 1979, 28-47. Tom Michie's research on these portraits (NGA curatorial files) has been very helpful in writing these entries. [2] For her dates see Gibbs 1933, 21-25. [3] Lazarus acted as the Gibbs' agent in the sale. After agreeing upon the price, he wrote Coolidge on 27 June 1872 that he was sending the portraits to Boston the next day with some documents concerning their history. These were his copies of letters written to Mrs. Gibbs in the 1850s certifying that the portraits were painted by Stuart for Colonel Gibbs (copies, NGA curatorial files). On Coolidge see _Dictionary of American Biography_, 2 (part 2):395, and Emma Downing Coolidge, _Descendants of John and Mary Coolidge of Watertown, Massachusetts_, Boston, 1930, 351. [4] Coolidge 1930, 353; his father Thomas Jefferson Coolidge II died in 1912.
- Medium: oil on wood
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