Portrait of a British Naval Captain

Richard Wilson (British, 1714–1782)

Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas

Dimensions127 x 101.6 cm (50 x 40 in.)

Credit LineBequest of Henry Lee Shattuck in memory of the late Morris Gray

Accession number1983.36

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

InscriptionsLower left, on cannon: R. Wilson f. / [...]ProvenanceReverend Henry Stewart Gladstone, Hazelwood, Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, England [see note 1]. 1930, sold by the Casson Galleries, Boston, to Henry Lee Shattuck (b. 1879 - d. 1971), Boston and Brookline, MA; 1971, passed to his estate; 1983, gift of the estate of Henry Lee Shattuck to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 12, 1983)

NOTES:
[1] When the Casson Galleries sold this painting to Henry Lee Shattuck in 1930, it was considered a portrait of General Thomas Gage. The gallery wrote to Shattuck that "this portrait came from the collection of Rev. Henry Steuart [sic] Gladstone of Hazelwood, Hertfordshire, who married Mary, eldest daughter of Lieut. General, The Hon. Edward Thomas Gage, C. B. ... It comes through an agent who had it to sell for the estate." Since the identification of the sitter has since come into question, it seems unlikely that the painting descended from Gage to Reverend Gladstone.