Northern European School, Possibly Gustavus Hesselius

Said to have been commissioned from the artist by Judge William Smith (1697-1769) and his first wife Mary Het Smith (1710-1754), and said to have thence passed as follows in the family;
Thence by inheritance to Elizabeth Williams, Wethersfield, Connecticut, second wife of Judge Smith, upon the latter's death in 1769;
Thence by descent to her step-son, Captain Elisha Williams, in 1776;
Thence by descent to Elizabeth Williams Belden, in 1784;
Thence by descent to Elizabeth Belden Buck, 1789;
Thence by descent to Caroline Handy Gold, 1887;
Thence by descent to Frances Theresa Gold Worcester, 1907, and remaining in the Worceser family until 1922;
With Copley Gallery, Boston;
From whom acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1923 [Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection, acc. no. 1423.1923].

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Exhibition of Early American Portraits, 20 January - 8 March 1925, nos. 15 and 16;
Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art:  The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition, 26 June - 4 October 1936, nos. 30 and 31;
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Exhibition of Paintings by
Hessulius at Swedish Tercentenary Exhibition, 29 June - 17 July 1938, nos. 4 and 5;
Dallas, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Famous Families in American Art, 8 October - 20 November 20 1960, no. 1;
Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Four Centuries of American Art, 27 November 1964 - 19 January 1964, p. 33.

Cleveland Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. XI, 1924, pp. 33-34, reproduced p. 35;
F. Fairchild Sherman, Early American Paintings, New York 1932, p. 16;
A. Burroughs, Limners and Likenesses: Three Centuries of American Painting, Cambridge 1936, p. 30, reproduced pl. 23;
H. E. Keyes, "Doubts Regarding Hesselius," in Antiques, vol. XXXIV, 1938, pp. 144-45, reproduced p. 145 (as likely not by Hesselius);
A. Chong, European & American Painting in The Cleveland Museum of Art:  A Summary Catalogue, Cleveland 1993, p. 269 (as German).

The canvases are lined. The surface of the works are in good overall condition. In the portrait of the man there is craquelure throughout. there are some abrasions which have been mostly covered by retouching. There is some inpainting on the left edge of the oval. In the portrait of the woman, there is also craquelure throughout. There is also a possible repaired tear in the lower right of the oval.
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