Portraits Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
PA.125 |
Title |
Portrait of a Clergyman (possibly John Clarke) |
Artist |
Ville, Guilliam de, circa 1614-1672 |
Date |
1659 |
Description |
John Clarke (1609-1676), one of the founders of the Colony of Rhode Island, was pastor of what is now named the First Baptist John Clarke Memorial Church of Newport, the oldest orthodox Baptist church in America. However, there is little evidence that supports the attribution of this portrait to John Clarke. Portrait. Adult Male Subject. 3/4th length view. He is standing and turned slightly to his left. His left hand rests on a large book, most likely the Bible; He has light hair and blue eyes and wears a white clerical collar and a black cassock. |
Object Name |
Painting |
Medium |
Oil Paint |
Material |
Canvas |
Dimensions |
H-129.5 W-107.1 cm |
Credit line |
Gift of Stephen Randall [?] |
Provenance |
n.d. |
Inscriptions and Marks |
To left of the breast: Aetatis 59. Also dated clearly in two places: 1659. Artist's signature is on the paper by the head of the gavel. |
Collection |
Painting |
People |
Randall, Stephen, 1793-1874 Ville, Guilliam de, circa 1614-1672 Clarke, John, 1609-1676 |
Notes |
Formerly #24. The portrait is dated clearly in two places "1659", and the inscription to the left of the breast reads, 'Aetatis 59'. Below the signature is verse in Low Dutch which is exactly the form, except for insignificant differences in spelling, which Psalm Xiii:6 has in one particullar translation of the Bible, which was printed by Lenaert for Kindern, at Emden, in 1563. The version is known as the Mennonite version, or Biestken's Bible. It would accordingly appear probable that either the subject, or the painter of this portrait dated in 1659, was a Mennonite, or had some relations with them which would cause him in that year to quote the Biestken's Bible rather than the Staatenbybel. The Mennonite Confession was adopted in 1632, and Dr. John Clarke may have been influenced by it if he did not actually adopt it. There were points on which the Mennonites and the Anabaptists agreed. Possibly the resemblance between the names of Menno Simons, from whom and Mennonites derive their name, and Helene Symon, the wife of de Ville, may have led to the choice of the Mennonite version. ("Portraits of the Founders", vol. 2 by Bolton). See file for further information on this painting (from "XVIIth Century Painting in New England", a catalogue of an Exhibition held at the Worcester Art Museum in 1934). 1976 (May-June) Newport Historical Society, "300th anniversary of John Clarke's death" |
Related Publications |
Minutes 12 May 1942 ; 1920 "The History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" by Bicknell (opposite 273); 1933 "Historic Newport" by Lawton (21); 1942 (May) "Fortune" July 1942 vol 26:1 (84); 1973 (Winter) "Rhode Island History" vol. 32:(2); 1981 (May) "Rhode Island History" vol. 40:(2) opposite (41) and cover; 1986 "An Album of Rhode Island History" by Conley (27); 1994 "Mary Dyer, Biography of a Rebel Quaker" by Plimpton (206) |