Gilbert Stuart

Mrs. Jonathan Mason, Boston

Herbert Cowpland Mason, Boston (grandson of the above, acquired by descent in 1836)

Mabel (Mason) Van Rensselaer, Newport, Rhode Island (daughter of the above, acquired by descent in 1884)

Honora Winthrop (Mason) Winston, Boston (acquired by bequest from the above in 1925)

Christie's, New York, 8 December 1978, lot 3

Alexander Gallery, New York (acquired from the above)

Acquired from the above on 8 December 1978 by the present owner

Boston, Copley Hall, Loan Collection: Portraits of Women, 1895

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Loan Collection of Early American Artists, 1895-1896, no. 208

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1912-54 (on loan)

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Gilbert Stuart Memorial Exhibition, 1928, no. 39

Lawrence Park, Gilbert Stuart: An Illustrated Descriptive List of His Work, vol. II, New York 1926, no. 533, pp. 512-13

Lawrence Park, Gilbert Stuart: An Illustrated Descriptive List of His Work, vol. IV, New York 1926, p. 322, illustrated

William Howe Downes, "The Gilbert Stuart Exhibition in Boston," The American Magazine of Art, vol. 20, no. 1, January 1929, pp. 11-18

Exh. Cat., New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilbert Stuart, 2004 - 2005, fig. 137, n.p., illustrated

Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, vol. I, Cambridge 2014, fig. 62, p. 452, illustrated in color

Executed in 1805, the present work is an eloquent portrait of Susannah Powell Mason, the wife of Jonathan Mason (1756 - 1831).  Representing the state of Massachusetts, Mason served as a member of the governor’s council, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate.  Gilbert Stuart painted both Mason’s wife and his daughter Anna several times.  Another portrait of Susannah Mason by Gilbert Stuart hangs today at the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University. A personal and evocative painting, Portrait of Mrs. Jonathan Mason remained with the family for over a hundred years, during which it was exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston Museum of Fine Arts twice.  Acquired in 1978 by the present owners, the work has now been in the same private collection for almost fifty years.