Admiral Peter Rainier
John Singleton Copley
(American, 1738–1815)
Gilbert Stuart
(American, 1755–1828)
Mather Brown
(American, 1761–1831)
between 1778–87
Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas
Dimensions76.5 x 63.8 cm (30 1/8 x 25 1/8 in.)
Credit LineHenry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession number04.1757
On View
On viewClassificationsPaintings
Collections
This work’s “whodunit” past speaks to the broad reach of the fluid portrait style popular in London in the late eighteenth century, which spread throughout the British Empire. The MFA bought this painting in 1904 as a John Singleton Copley. By the 1920s, scholars were claiming it for Gilbert Stuart. In 1958, it was attributed to American expatriate Mather Brown, only to be re-catalogued in the 1980s as a work by an unidentified British painter. The sitter, Peter Rainier (1741-1808), had an illustrious career in the Royal Navy, serving in the Pacific, the West and East Indies, and in India.
ProvenanceBy inheritance to Peter Rainier (d. 1836), England [see note 1]. Hughes Stanton, England. Lawrie and Co., London, England; Sold by Lawrie and Co. to W. Scott and Sons, Montreal; 1904, sold by W. Scott and Sons to Walter Rowlands for the MFA for $1500. (Accession Date: November 7, 1904)
NOTES:
[1] nephew of the sitter
NOTES:
[1] nephew of the sitter
Unidentified artist, British, 18th century or first quarter 19th century
18th century or first quarter 19th century
Unidentified artist, British, 18th century or first quarter 19th century
Unidentified artist, British, first half 18th century
Unidentified artist, British, fourth quarter 18th century
Unidentified artist, British, third quarter 18th century
Unidentified artist, British, fourth quarter 18th century
Unidentified artist, British, third quarter 18th century
Unidentified artist, British, fourth quarter 18th century
1775–1799
Unidentified artist, Flemish, first half 18th century
Unidentified artist, Flemish, first half 18th century
Unidentified artist, Flemish, first half 18th century