William Carpenter, 1779¹
Oil on canvas
47 7/8 x 35 5/8 in. (121.6 x 90.5 cm)
Museum purchase, 1916.1

On the bottom tacking edge of the canvas: "EU Sqr./c/c/4"

On the right stretcher member: "This Picture is a likeness of William Carpenter Esq^re, late of Toft Monks, in the County of Norfolk, when a boy about year 12 years old, he was the only Son of William Carpenter Esq^re,/ of the adjoining Parish of Aldeby, and was born in the year 1767, and died March 14^th 1823, aged 56 years. This Picture was renovated by M^r. Sands, an/ Artist in Norwich, in the year 1860, by the order and at the expence of Philip Samuel Carpenter. x x"

Provenance
Owned by Philip Samuel Carpenter by 1860. Sold at Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, June 25, 1915; to J. Leger, 13 Duke Street, St. James’s S.W.; to Charles Henry Hart, fall 1915; to the Worcester Art Museum, bill, December 30, 1915, and purchased January 7, 1916.²

References
Christie’s 1915, 7, lot 30.

"Recent Purchases," Worcester Bulletin 7: 1 (April 1916): 5.

Gage 1916, 6, [7].

L[    ]., 1916, 8, 10.

"Purchases in 1915–1916," Worcester Annual Report 1916, 15.

Morgan 1921, 7.

Worcester 1922, 100–1, 174.

Lee 1929, 218.

Worcester 1929, cat. no. 333.

Stockholm 1930, 22.

Copenhagen 1930, 22.

"American Show Opens in Sweden," The Art News 28: 25 (March 22, 1930): 9.

The Arts 17, no. 3 (December 1930): [154].

"History of American Art Traced in Show," The Art Digest 5 (December 15, 1930): 14.

Newark 1930, checklist, n.p.

"Loans of Paintings," Worcester Annual Report 1930, [24].

"Loans from the Museum Collections," Worcester Annual Report 1931, [16].

Addison Gallery 1932, cat. no. 5, n.p.

"Loans from the Museum Collections," Worcester Annual Report 1933, [37].

Worcester 1933, 96.

"Worcester’s New Building," The American Magazine of Art 26 (January 1933): 43.

"Worcester’s New Art Museum," Creative Art 12: 2 (February 1933): 142.

Sawitzky 1935a, 8.

Wadsworth Atheneum 1935, 19.

"Loans from the Museum Collections," Worcester Annual Report 1935, 19.

Burroughs 1936, 92.

American Art Portfolios, 1^st ser. (1936), 15, 18, 19, 34, and plate 3.

Pach 1936, 13.

"Loans from the Museum Collections," Worcester Annual Report 1937, 19.

Cheney 1939, 39.

Sherman 1939, 178.

Patch 1940, 118

Sawitzky 1945, Introduction, cat. no. 4, plate, n.p.

"Ralph Earl," Worcester News Bulletin 11: 3 (December 1945): n.p.

Worcester 1948, 78.

Rathbone 1949, 23.

World Art 1959, I, plate 100, n.p.

Pierson and Davidson 1960, 307.

Sawitzky and Sawitzky 1960, 17, 19–21, 39.

Lyon 1963, 12, 27.

Rich and Dresser 1966, 648, 654.

Wright 1966, 215, 216.

Goodrich 1967, 7, 18–19.

Rinhart and Rinhart 1967, 5.

Dresser 1971, 478–79.

Spencer 1972, xv–xvi.

Worcester 1973, 152.

Neumeyer 1974, 97, 305, and fig. 85.

Jareckie 1976, 9, 11.

Teitz 1979, 38–39.

Evans 1980, 61.

McFate and Gyongy 1985, 20.

Kornhauser 1988, I, xv, 52, 54, 271, 272.

Kornhauser 1991a, 19, 86, 90, 115, 116, 118.

Exhibitions
Exhibition of American Eighteenth Century Art Owned in and near Worcester, Worcester Art Museum, 1929, cat. no. 333.

Utställning av Amerikansk Konst (title translated for each venue), Kungl. Akademien för de fria konsterna, Stockholm, March 15–April 7, 1930; Ny Carlsberg Glypotek, Copenhagen, May 3–22, 1930, cat. no. 36.

American Painting from 1700 to 1900, Newark Museum, Newark, N.J., November 13, 1930–February 1, 1931, checklist.

American Paintings in New England Museums, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., May 28–June 22, 1932, cat. no. 5.

American Painting and Sculpture of the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th Centuries, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conn., January 29–February 19, 1935, cat. no. 4.

Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Mass., approximately May 29–June 23, 1936.

Museum of Modern Art, New York, American painting exhibition, closed October 12, 1936.

New York World’s Fair, New York City, May 11–October 27, 1940, cat. no. 173.

Ralph Earl, 1751–1801, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 16–November 21, 1945; and Worcester Art Museum, December 13, 1945–January 13, 1946, cat. no. 4.

The Early Republic: Consolidation of Revolutionary Goals, Worcester Art Museum, March 3–June 30, 1976, cat. no. 4.

American Art from the Collection of the Worcester Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, April 27–June 24, 1979, cat. pp. 38–39.

Ralph Earl: The Face of the Young Republic, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., November 1, 1991–January 1, 1992; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conn., February 2–April 2, 1992; and Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, May 16–July 12, 1992, cat. no. 10.

Notes
1. This painting also has been published as Portrait of William Carpenter (Worcester Annual Report 1916, 15).

2. Christie’s 1915, 7, lot 30. J. Leger identifies himself as the purchaser of the Carpenter portraits from Christie’s in a letter to Charles Henry Hart, July 23, 1915, Frick Art Reference Library, New York For the sale to Hart, see J. Leger to Charles Henry Hart, September 23, 1915, Frick Art Reference Library. For the sale to the Worcester Art Museum, see Charles Henry Hart to Worcester Art Museum, bill, December 30, 1915, approved January 7, 1916, object file, Worcester Art Museum