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Alexander Hamilton
John Trumbullc. 1792
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 303-306, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/apublications/pdfs/american-paintings-18th-century.pdf
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Details
- Title: Alexander Hamilton
- Creator: John Trumbull
- Date Created: c. 1792
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 76.2 x 60.5 cm (30 x 23 13/16 in.) framed: 87 x 71.8 x 4.4 cm (34 1/4 x 28 1/4 x 1 3/4 in.)
- Provenance: Oliver Wolcott [1760-1833], Litchfield, Connecticut, and New York;[1] his son, John Stoughton Wolcott [1802-1843], New York;[2] sold 1844 by his estate to William Jay [1789-1858], Katonah, New York;[3] his son, John Jay II [1817-1894], New York and Katonah, New York;[4] his son, William Jay II [1841-1915], New York and Katonah, New York;[5] his daughter, Eleanor Jay Iselin [Mrs. Arthur Iselin, 1882-1953]; by gift to her son, William Jay Iselin [1908-1951] by 1937;[6] from whose estate purchased 1952 by the Avalon Foundation for NGA. [1] Wolcott owned the portrait by 1829, when he commented on it in his letter of 12 March to Dr. John R. Rhinelander; Oliver Wolcott Papers, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford. The letter is quoted in Samuel Wolcott, _Memorial of Henry Wolcott and Some of His Descendants_, New York, 1881: 379 (information courtesy of Margaret Christman, NPG), quoted in Helen A. Cooper, ed., _John Trumbull: The Hand and Spirit of a Painter_, Exh. cat., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 1982: 122, n. 2. [2] Oliver Wolcott bequeathed to his son John "who resides with me and is the protector of my declining age all my books papers manuscripts pictures and household furniture" in New York and at the farm in Litchfield, with all buildings and "appurtenances thereof including the pictures & furniture in the mansion house"; manuscript copy of his will, 14 July 1832, Gibbs Family Papers, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison. On the Wolcotts see A. Böhmer Rudd, _Wolcott Genealogy: The Family of Henry Wolcott_, Washington, 1950: 113, and _Dictionary of American Biography_, New York, 1944-1988, 10 (part 2):443-445 (Oliver Wolcott). [3] After John Stoughton Wolcott's death, George C. Woodruff of Litchfield, Connecticut, offered the portrait to the Connecticut Historical Society. He wrote the secretary of the society on 15 February 1844 that it and three other portraits "were the property of the late Govr. Wolcott & now belong to the estate of his son Doct. Wolcott decd. . . . They have been sent me by the Executor Geo. Gibbs Esq. of New York" (Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford; copy, NGA). The Society declined to buy them. William Jay's purchase of the portrait and the others of Washington, Adams, and Jay is recorded in his account book for 1844, according to Linda M. Connelly, site manager, John Jay Homestead (Katonah, New York). Midway during the year he noted that he "acquired four Trumbulls" and listed the names. 4. Clarence W. Bowen, ed., _The History of Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington as the First President of the United States_, New York, 1892: 144. 5. "Col. William Jay" lent the painting to the exhibition at the American Art Galleries in New York in 1903. 6. A letter from Mrs. Iselin to the Atlantic Monthly Press, 29 March 1937, stated that her son owned the portrait (Frick Art Reference Library).
- Medium: oil on canvas
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