Unidentified artist
Seventeenth century

John Freake, about 1671 and 16741
Oil on canvas
42 x 36 3/4 in. (108 x 93.3 cm)
Sarah C. Garver Fund, 1963.135
Provenance
John Freake (1635–1675) and Elizabeth Freake (1642–1713) to their daughter Mary Freake Wolcott (Mrs. Josiah Wolcott) (1674–1752); to her grandson Josiah Wolcott (1733–1796), Oxford, Massachusetts; to his daughter Elizabeth Wolcott Sigourney (Mrs. Andrew Sigourney) (1761–1829); to her daughter Mary Sigourney Town Hunt (1799–1860); to her daughter Mrs. William Wallace, Tennessee; willed to her first cousin John Wolcott Wetherell (b. 1820), Worcester, Massachusetts; whose wife willed them to Wetherell's first cousin once removed, Myrtis S. Sigourney (Mrs. Gilbert H. Harrington, later Mrs. William B. Scofield) (1860–1939); to her brother Andrew Wolcott Sigourney (b. 1880) and his wife, Katherine H. Sigourney (d. 1963), Princeton, Massachusetts; to their four children, Andrew Sigourney, Suzanne Sigourney (Mrs. Robert E. Leonard), Katherine M. Shaver, and Carolyn O. Holtz.2

References
Wolcott 1881, 200.

Freeland 1894, 243–44.

Bolton 1919, I, 2, 3; II, 390, 391, 640; III, 954.

Henniker-Heaton 1923, 62, 63.

Morris 1927, 6, 7, pl. 10.

Warwick and Pitz 1929, pl. XI, 122, 123, 133.

Barker 1934, 509, 512 (original); 48, 53 (reprint).

Cahill and Barr 1935, 10.

Dresser 1935, 21, 24, 26, 31, 53, 80, 81–82, 84, 103, 120, 126, 150, 167, 168, 176.

American Art Portfolios 1936, I, 26, 28, 29.

Burroughs 1936, 10–11, 16, fig. 7.

American Portraits 1939, I, 156.

Hagen 1940, 14, 15, 18, 19.

Saint-Gaudens 1941, 16, 17.

Flexner 1947, 7, 12, 14, 17, 22.

Art Institute of Chicago 1949, 14–15.

Larkin 1949, 20.

Phillips 1949, 26.

Barker 1950, 37–39.

Richardson 1956, 28.

World Art, I, 1959, 278.

Dresser 1964, n.p.

Mastai 1964, 136, 137–38.

Worcester Annual Report, 1964, x, xiii.

Warwick 1965, 116, 283, pl. 18.

Dresser 1966a, 31.

Dresser 1966b, 2, 5, 6.

Green 1966, 23.

Rich and Dresser 1966, 648.

Gold 1968, 75, 77.

McLanathan 1968, 19, 20.

Freedgood 1970, 5.

Mendelowitz 1970, 108.

Dresser 1971, 473, 474.

Wilmerding 1973, 30.

Worcester 1973, 142.

Reutlinger 1975, 4, 5, 7.

Wilmerding 1976, 17.

Brown 1977, 33.

Strazdes 1979, 15 and 17.

Teitz 1979, 8, 10–11.

Strickler 1981–1982, 48, 49, 53, 54.

Fairbanks 1982, III, 416, 417, 418, 443, 445, 459, 461–62, 463.

Miller 1984, 170, 171.

Craven 1986, 14, 31, 38–43, 46, 47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 65, 82, 93, 115.

Vlach 1988, 87, 89, 90, 96–97.

Sherman 1990–1991, 34, 36, 37, 38, 40.

Martin 1992, 134, fig. 49.

Craven 1993, 103, 104, 106–07.

Gross 1993, 119.

Craven 1994, 43, 50.

Worcester 1994, 179.

Fales 1995, 19.

Fairbanks 1996, 677–78.

Exhibitions
XVIIth Century Painting in New England, Worcester Art Museum, July and August 1934, cat. entry, pp. 80 and 81–82.

The Colonial Epoch in America, Worcester Art Museum, April 18, 1975–January 4, 1976, cat. pp. 4, 5, 7.

American Art from the Collection of the Worcester Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Tex., April 27–June 24, 1979, cat. pp. 8, 10–11.

New England Begins: The Seventeenth Century, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, May 5–August 22, 1982, cat. no. 437.

Notes
1. This painting has also been published as John Freke (Bolton 1919, II, 391); Mr. Freake (Cahill and Barr 1935, 10); Mr. John Freake (Barker 1934, 512); Mr. John Freake of Boston (Dresser 1964, n.p.); Portrait of John Freake (Henniker-Heaton 1923, [63]); and Portrait of Mr. John Freake (Gold 1968, [75]).

2. Mary Freake Wolcott, Will, March 7, 1752, Suffolk County Probate, record no. 10204, names Josiah Wolcott the principal beneficiary. Probate inventory for the estate of Josiah Wolcott, filed April 20, 1797, Worcester County Probate. Mrs. William B. Scofield to Louisa Dresser, January 28, 1935, object file, Worcester Art Museum.