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1954-263,A&C, Painting
Portrait of Thomas Newton, Jr. (1742-1807)
1954-263,A&C, Painting

Portrait of Thomas Newton, Jr. (1742-1807)

DateProbably 1770
Attributed to John Durand (active 1760-1782)
OriginAmerica, Virginia, Norfolk
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 47 7/8" x 36 7/16" and Framed: 52 1/2" x 41 1/8" x 2 1/4"
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1954-263,A&C
DescriptionA three-quarter-length portrait of a standing man turned in three-quarter view towards the viewer's right, his head turned slightly towards the viewer. His proper right hand rests on his hip, his proper left hand thrust within his waistcoat. He wears a red, three-piece suit (coat, waistcoat, and breeches) with a white shirt; a turned down white collar tops his white neck cloth. He has chin-length, reddish-brown hair cut short above his blue eyes. To the viewer's right, two pieces of paper and a quill in an inkstand appear on a table covered with a blue cloth. In the background, a dark green drape forms a diagonal from upper right to lower left, the upper portion revealing the base and lower part of a column set on a ledge above the table. Beyond the column a cloudy sky is visible.

The current 3-inch, black-painted, bolection-molded frame is a replacement that appears to date from about the period of the painting; it was acquired from the Old Print Shop, New York, NY, 14 November 1955, replacing the stylistically-inappropriate nineteenth-century frame (sold in 1991) in which the portrait was acquired.
Label TextThe Newton likenesses are the most elaborate and the largest of the known portraits that Durand painted in Virginia. The Newton family lived in Norfolk where Thomas Jr. served as a member of the House of Burgesses from 1765 to 1775 and as mayor of the city in the 1790s. His son, Thomas Newton III, also politically prominent, served in the state legislature for a number of years.
Martha Tucker Newton was the daughter of Robert Tucker of Norfolk and Joanna Corbin Tucker.
Two portraits of Newton’s parents, Thomas Newton Sr. and Amy Hutchings Newton, probably by Durand, were recorded in the early twentieth century, but their current whereabouts are unknown.

InscribedIt seems doubtful that the back of this primary support bears an inscription, but see below.

See the transcription from Grigsby ("Notes") which lists this and three companion portraits (of the sitter's parents and wife) as nos. 1-4. Below his listing, Grigsby appears to credit Newton descendant Tazewell Taylor (1810-1875) with the 20 September 1868 statement that "the Portraits were painted by John Durand in 1770 as appears from the memoranda on the back of each portrait which gives the names of the persons & their ages."

Taylor's words and their arrangement seem to imply that all four portraits were so inscribed. Why, then, did Kessler ("Bibligraphy") cite inscriptions on only three of the four (omiting Martha Tucker Newton and Child, CWF acc. no. 1954-273)?

Or, perhaps, were only the two elder Newtons' portraits signed? Brock ("Bibliography") confirms inscriptions on the two elder Newtons (but says her inscription was on the stretcher, not the back of the canvas). He does not mention inscriptions on the younger Newtons, i.e., CWF's 1954-263 and 1954-273. Dunlap ("Bibliography"), also, only mentions inscriptions on the portraits of the two elder Newtons, p. 169.

In 1959, conservator Russell Quandt removed a lining canvas placed on 1954-263 by the Chappelier Galleries, NYC, in "the late '40's" [believed to have been 1948]. Quandt was usually scrupulous about noting inscriptions on primary supports; in this instance, he reported nothing, casting doubt that such an inscription existed on the back of this painting.
ProvenanceFrom the subject to his daughter, Mrs. James Taylor (Sarah Newton)(1776-1855); to her son, Tazewell Taylor (1810-1875); to one or more interim owners, OR directly to Cincinnatus Newton of Richmond, Va.; to his niece, Mrs. __ Byrd (nee Martha Newton) of Richmond, Va.; to Thomas Newton Page of Rock Hall, Md.; to M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, NY, which was CWF's source. See n. 1 below.

n. 1: Tazewell Taylor, grandson of the subject, is the earliest verified owner, so the picture is presumed to have come to him via his mother, the subject's daughter who married a Taylor. Tazewell Taylor's ownership BY 1869 is noted in Bolling ("Bibliography"), n. 21 on p. 29. The descent Cincinnatus Newton through Thomas Newton Page is documented through the latter's letter to Knoedler's of 2 December 1954.
Exhibition(s)