Self-Portrait, about 1680
Oil on canvas
24 5/8 x 23 9/16 in. (62.8 x 60 cm)
Museum purchase, 1948.19

Why why should I the World be minding
therein a World of Evils Finding.
     Then Farwell World: Farwell thy Jarres
     thy Joies thy Toies thy Wiles thy Warrs
Truth Sounds Retreat: I am not sorye.
     The Eternall Drawes to him my heart
     By Faith (which can thy Force Subvert)
To Crowne me (after Grace) with Glory.

TS. [initials in a monogram]

Visible under ultraviolet light to the left of the cipher: "Tho S AET (?)"¹

Provenance
Descended in the family from Thomas Smith to his daughter Maria Catherina Smith Gross Mears (Mrs. William Gross, later Mrs. Samuel Mears) (b. 1670–73. d. 1703/4–06); to her daughter Catherina Mears Dexter (Mrs. Samuel Dexter; later Mrs. Samuel Barnard) (1701–1797); to Catherina Dexter Haven (Mrs. Joseph Haven) (1737–1814); to her grandson Samuel Foster Haven, mid nineteenth century; to his nephew the Rev. Samuel Haven Hilliard, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts; to his son Edmund B. Hilliard.²

References
"Report of the Librarian," American Antiquarian Society, Proceedings 43 (October 1933), 220–1.

Barker 1934, 506, 509 (original); [41], 51 (reprint).

Connoisseur 94 (October 1934), 265.

Cahill and Barr 1935, 8, 11.

Dow 1935, opp. 80.

Dresser 1935, 24–25, 26, 65, 132, 133–38, 140, 150, 165, 168–69, 172.

Burroughs 1936, 14, 15–16, 24, fig. 10.

Metropolitan 1939, 2, 3.

Williams 1939, 79.

Hagen 1940, 27, fig. 41.

Goldwater 1940, 10, 12.

Saint-Gaudens 1941, pl. 2 (n.p.), 18–19.

Ferris 1943, I, pl. 39, 548–49.

Jantz 1943, 476.

Old and New 1945, 10.

RISD 1945, 45.

Flexner 1947, 18, opp. 18, 19, 312, 353–54.

Weis 1947, 50–51, opp. 50.

Worcester 1948, 75.

Art Institute of Chicago 1949, 5–6, 14, and 68.

Dresser 1949a, n.p., pl. 1.

Larkin 1949, 19–20

Worcester News Bulletin 14, no. 5 (February 1949), 18, 19.

Barker 1950, 46–49.

Wildenstein 1953, n.p.

Richardson 1956, 27–28, fig. 10.

Eliot 1957, 6.

Belknap 1959, 216, 217, pl. 6 (opp. 224).

World Art, I, 1959, I, 278–79.

Larkin 1960, 19–20.

Pierson and Davidson 1960, 67, 292.

Black 1962, 65.

Savelle 1965, 433.

Warwick 1965, 274, 279, 282, pl. 9.

Dresser 1966a, 28.

Dresser 1966b, 11–13.

Rich and Dresser 1966, 648, 653.

Wright 1966, 158, 160.

McLanathan 1968, 18–19.

Wilmerding 1968, 4, 6.

Prown 1969, 19–20, 21.

Freedgood 1970, 7–8.

Glubok 1970, 12.

Dresser 1971, 473, 474.

Gowans 1971, 61, 134–35.

Gerdts and Burke 1971, 16, 18, 20, 134.

Price 1972, 8.

Wilmerding 1973, 32–33.

Worcester 1973, 143.

Butler 1974, 304.

Davidson 1974, 8, 10–11.

Tashjian and Tashjian 1974, 109–10, 121.

Neumeyer 1974, 27–28, pl. 8, 303.

Van Devanter and Frankenstein 1974, 16–17.

Reutlinger 1975, 8–9.

Stein 1975, 9, 10.

Allard 1976, [340], 341–48.

Sellers 1976, 162.

Whitehill and Kotker 1976, 43.

Wilmerding 1976, 12, 19–20, pl. 13.

Brown 1977, 34–35.

Prown, 1977, 15–16, 17.

Brown 1979, 27, 67.

Taylor 1979, 14.

Teitz 1979, 12–13.

Wolf 1980, [338], 347.

Geddes 1981, frontispiece, 59.

Gerdts 1981, 36.

Hirsh 1981, 85.

Quick 1981, 14.

Fairbanks 1982, III, 419–20, 425, 441, 451, 452, 468, 469, 470, 472, 474–75.

Kammen 1982, 3, 4.

Wolf 1982, 12, 13.

Miller 1984, fig. 22, 172, 178–82.

Stein 1984, 316–27.

Craven 1986, 65, 66, 67, 68, 72, 116.

Meyer 1986, 26, 27.

Kammen 1987, 73–74, 75.

Saunders and Miles 1987, 2.

Wilmerding 1987, 12–13.

Broos 1990, 20.

Goddard 1990, 21.

Stannard 1991, 82.

Craven 1994, 46–47, 48.

Worcester 1994, 180.

Fuhrman 1995, 56.

Hughes 1997, 35.

Lepore 1998, 168–69.

Exhibitions
XVIIth Century Painting in New England, Worcester Art Museum, July and August, 1934, cat. entry, pp. 133–38.

Life in America, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y., April 24–October 29, 1939, cat. no. 2.

Self-Portraits: Baroque to Impressionism, Schaeffer Galleries, New York, N.Y., for the benefit of the College Art Association Publication Fund, April 2–30, 1940.

Old and New England, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I., January 19–February 18, 1945, cat. no. 51.

From Colony to Nation: An Exhibition of American Painting, Silver and Architecture from 1650 to the War of 1812, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, April 21–June 19, 1949, cat. no. 105.

Likeness of America, 1680–1820, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colo., June 27–September 10, 1949, cat. no. 35.

Landmarks in American Art 1670–1950, Wildenstein Gallery, New York, N.Y., February 26–March 28, 1953, cat. no. 2.

American Self-Portraits, 1670–1973, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., February 1–March 15, 1974, cat. no. 1.

The Colonial Epoch in America, Worcester Art Museum, April 18, 1975–January 4, 1976, cat. pp. 8–9.

American Art from the Collection of the Worcester Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Tex., April 27–June 24, 1979, cat. pp. 12–13.

New England Begins: The Seventeenth Century, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, May 5–August 22, 1982, cat. no. 448.

Notes
1. This inscription was revealed during an examination in the conservation lab at the Worcester Art Museum, 1978.

2. Dexter 1904, 36, 37; "Report of the Librarian," American Antiquarian Society, Proceedings 43 (October 1933), 220–1; Dresser 1935, 134; Ferris 1943, I, 431, 548–50; and Fairbanks 1982, III, 475.