Mather Brown (American, active in England, 1761-1831), Half-length portrait of Nathaniel Chauncey (1

Mather Brown (American, active in England, 1761-1831)

Half-length portrait of Nathaniel Chauncey (1717-1790) Sitting at a small table on which rest a leather-bound book, two sheets of drawings and a “black basalt-ware” figure of the Muse of sacred poetry, Polyhymnia

Circa 1786

Oil on canvas and contained within its original late 18th century giltwood George III frame

Provenance:By descent from the sitter to Miss Katherine Chauncey who bequeathed it to Colonel Chaunc(e)y; Thence to his daughters the Misses Chaunc(e)y of 23 Bennett Street, Bath; Their sale, Christies, London, 17 June 1921 (lot 98), erroneously as by Sir Joshua Reynolds and as a portrait of Dr Charles Chauncey (Nathaniel's elder brother) and painted in 1758, to E.Parsons & Sons, art dealers, on behalf of A.J.V. Radford Esq. of Malvern; His sale Sothebys, 1957 (not traced) where acquired by Capt. F. Gordon Troup of Haslemere, and thence by descent to his son Donald Troup until 2010 when acquired by the present owner.

Literature:   Graves and Cronin, 'History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds' (1898) p. 1280, as a portrait of Charles Chauncey MD FSA, who sat for his portrait in 1758, and paid for it before 1760; Sir Ellis Waterhouse Reynolds (1941) p.75 as the portrait of Nathaniel Chauncey exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1784 (no.16). The picture is listed as untraced and engraved and the size given as 76 x 63 cm (30 x 25 inches: the present painting is a “KitKat”, ie 36 x 28 inches) and illustrated as plate 159; David Mannings, 'Sir Joshua Reynolds, A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings', (2000) Volume I, page 130 sub. Catalogue number 352, (“Nathaniel Chauncey 1717-1790”) where he notes that “The portrait of Nathaniel Chauncey repr(oduced) in W(aterhouse) (pl.159) was subsequently attributed by Waterhouse himself to Mather Brown.

This picture relates strongly to the famous image of Thomas Jefferson by Mather Brown, now in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, which is of identical size and near-identical composition and was painted in London in 1786.  The art-historical status of this painting has been the subject of much confusion since it was first published in 1899-1901 by Graves and Cronin as a portrait of Dr Charles Chauncey MD FSA (1706-1777)  by Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA. This error was repeated in the 1921 sale at Christies, when it was described as of Charles Chauncy (sic) and painted in 1758.   Dr David Mannings  (Complete Catalogue, 2000, p.130) demonstrates conclusively that the “Mr Chauncy Junior” who appears in Reynolds ledgers for 1758 was in fact William Henry Chauncey (1728-1788). Dr Charles Chauncey had appointments with Reynolds in 1755, 1770 and 1771, though any portraits resulting from these sittings, if  they exist, are no longer extant or traceable. Certainly, on the grounds of costume alone, the present painting cannot date before the mid-1780s, and the 1921 Christie cataloguing must thus fail on both dating and identity grounds. However, the error was compounded by Ellis Waterhouse when publishing his 1941 monograph on Reynolds: he reproduces the present picture as plate 159. By now Waterhouse had realised that the portrait could not be of Charles Chauncey and  the Royal Academy painting of 1784, since Charles Chauncey had already died in 1777, and he correctly identifies the sitter as Nathaniel Chauncey, elder brother of Charles.

Dimensions: (Frame) 44.75 in. (H) x 35.75 in. (W)  (Canvas) 35 in. (H) x 27 in. (W)