Preview
Creation Date
ca. 1750
Geography
England
Culture
English
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
With frame: 35 9/16 × 29 3/16 × 1 5/8 in. (90.3 × 74.1 × 4.1 cm)
Without frame: 30 1/16 × 24 1/2 in. (76.3 × 62.3 cm)
Credit Line
Bequest of David P. Harris ('46), 2020
Accession Number
2020.396
Provenance
Purchased by David P. Harris from "von Barghahn Gallery, Inc. / 325 CAMERON STREET · ALEXANDRIA, VA. 22314 · TEL. 703 548-1177" in Alexandria, Virginia on December 27, 1976.
According to von Barghahn Gallery, Inc., "It was acquired from the home of a very old lady who said it had been in her family for generations."
Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings
Visible on the spines of the books above the sitters left shoulder: "BUTLER'S / SER / MONS" and "McPHER / SON's [C]ANTOs"
Repeated around border, back of frame: "***MADE IN SWEDEN"
Back of canvas: "G806"
Description
The figure is starkly dressed in a clerical robe and neck-dress; he wears a wig and points to the text of a book. Behind his left shoulder are three volumes, one entitled "Butler's Sermons" and another "McPherson's Cantos."
The dealer identified the sitter as English poet Samuel Butler (1612–1680) known for his mock heroic poem Hudibras, and suggested a date of ca. 1680. However, the figures' clerical attire and the reference of one of the painted books to sermons suggests that this is more likely English philosopher and theologian Bishop Joseph Butler (1692–1752), best known for his Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel. This would date the painting closer to ca. 1750.