Portraits Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
PA.105 |
Title |
Henry Collins |
Artist |
Smibert, John, 1688-1751 |
Date |
1736 circa; 1729 (AAP) |
Description |
Henry Collins (1699-1764), Richard Ward's half-brother, was a Newport merchant in the cordage business, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. Among his many contributions to the city of Newport was the donation of land on which the Redwood Library was built (Collins served as one of the Directors of the Redwood Library 1748-61). He commissioned Feke to paint portraits of a number of his contemporaries. Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse referred to Collins as the "Lorenzo de Medici of Rhode Island". Portrait. Adult standing male subject in Colonial dress, waist length view, facing right three-quarter turn. Subject is shown standing against a brown interior background. His right hand rests on the table covered with a blue-green cloth on which are a silver inkstand, a book and a letter addressed To Mr. Henry Collins, Newport. His left hand holds an open letter. He appears nearly frontally, wearing a grey wig and reddish brown velvet coat and waist coat, white ruffled stock. His linen shirt bears the more conservative rounded cuffs while his neck linen is current with Colonial fashion of the time. (AAP; Powell 45-49) |
Object Name |
Painting |
Medium |
Oil Paint |
Material |
Canvas |
Dimensions |
H-126.5 W-100 cm |
Credit line |
The Gladys Moore Vanderbilt Széchényi Memorial Collection |
Provenance |
1991, July 11 - The Gladys Moore Vanderbilt Széchényi Memorial Collection The sitter; his half brother, Richard Ward; W. J. Flagg; by descent to Countess Lazlo Szechenyi, New York, by 1949; her daughter Nadine Szechenyi (Mrs. Alexander E. Eltz) by 1976; Redwood Library, by 1990. |
Collection |
Painting |
People |
Szechenyi, Gladys Vanderbilt, Countess, 1887-1965 Eltz, Nandine Széchényi Smibert, John, 1688-1751 Collins, Henry, 1699-1764 |
Notes |
Formerly #149. This painting is part of a collection of eight paintings given to the Redwood Library by descendents of Countess László Sechényi, a daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt (1843-1899). It was the wish of Countess Sechényi that the portraits remain together as a group in Newport. Since the family enjoyed a long association with the Redwood Library and a majority of the people depicted in the paintings are part of the history of Newport, it was felt that the Library was the appropriate repository for the portraits. 1953 (Summer-2 Oct) Preservation Society of Newport County at Nichols-Wanton-Hunter House "The Newport Exhibition"; 1969-70 (Oct -May) Wichita Art Museum traveling exhibition "American Paintings from Newport": Wilmington, Delaware; San Francisco, California; Wichita, Kansas; Cincinnati, Ohio |
Related Publications |
The Flagg Family: An Artistic Legacy and the Provenance of a Collection by Powell (45-49) ; 1953 The Newport Exhibition by Ralph Carpenter, Antiques 64 (45); 1959 American Colonial Painting by Belknap ( ); 1969-70 American Paintings from Newport (46); 1979 John Smibert (1688-1751): Anglo-American Portrait Painter by Richard Saunders ( ); 1995 John Smibert: Colonial America's first portrait painter by Saunders (195-96) |