Sampson Vryling Stoddard Wilder,
about 1808–12¹
Oil on canvas
36 3/8 x 28 7/8 in. (92.4 x 73.3 cm)
Gift of Lawrence Alan Haines in memory of his father, Wilder Haydn Haines, 1981.331

On the letter that is open on the desk behind the preceding one, in black paint: "S. Higginson Jr"

On the spine of the book at lower right, in yellow paint: "LEX/MERCATOR"

Provenance
The sitter, Sampson V. S. Wilder (1780–1865); to his wife, Electa Barrell Wilder (1797–1878); to her daughter Francina Eglée Wilder Haines (1819–1886); to her son Edward Wilder Haines (1845–1911); to his son, Wilder Haydn Haines (1893–1980); to his son Lawrence Alan Haines, who donated the portrait to the Worcester Art Museum.

References
Haines 1865, 26, 115–16.

Brooklyn Institute 1917, 116 and opp. 116.

Senate House Museum 1938, 10.

Averile 1949, 63–64, 375, no. 98.

Bizardel 1960, 87.

Lindsay 1970, 25, 39, 129.

Lindsay 1975, 80.

Sutton 1977, 42 and fig. 3.

Oedel 1981, 241–43, 246, 259 n. 133, 533.

Strickler 1981–82a.

"Museum Accessions," Antiques 122: 5 (November 1982): 994.

Stone 1983.

"Acquisitions by Gift," in "The Eighty-Sixth Annual Report," Worcester Journal 1981–82, 85.

"La Chronique des Arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts supplement. 101: 1370 (March 1983): 70.

Stebbins 1983, 60, 218.

Watson 1989, 93.

Worcester 1994, 191.

Exhibitions²
On loan to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1916–27.

Early American Paintings, Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, February 3–March 12, 1917, cat. no. 123.

On loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1927–33.

Exhibition of Colonial Artists, Robert C. Vose Galleries, Boston, summer 1935, no. 19.

Exhibition of the Work of John Vanderlyn, 1776–1852, Senate House Museum, Kingston, N.Y., May 6–20, 1938, cat. no. 11.

On loan to the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass., 1939; 1953–81.

The Works of John Vanderlyn: From Tammany to the Capitol, University Art Gallery, State University of New York at Binghamton, October 11–November 9, 1970, cat. no. 25.

Paris–New York: A Continuing Romance, Wildenstein, New York City, November 3–December 17, 1977, cat. no. 19.

Romanticism in American Art, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass., September 25–October 8, 1981; the exhibition continued until December 27, 1981.

A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting, 1760–1910, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, September 7–November 13, 1983; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., December 7, 1983–February 12, 1984; and Grand Palais, Paris, March 16–June 11, 1984.

Notes
1. This painting has also been published as Portrait of Sampson Vryling Stoddard Wilder (Lindsay 1970, 39); Sampson V. S. Wilder (Brooklyn Institute 1917, 116); and Sampson Wilder (Lindsay 1975, 88). Traditionally, it has been dated about 1805. Based upon the inscribed documents within the portrait, former Worcester Art Museum curator of American art Susan Strickler dates the painting 1808–12; see the analysis section to this entry for further discussion of the date (Strickler 1981–82a, 38–39).

2. According to the sitter’s family tradition, Vanderlyn’s portrait of Wilder was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1805 and won a medal there (Haines 1865, 115; Brooklyn Institute 1917, 116). Lois Fink, an expert on American participation in the French Salons, writes that there was no Salon in 1805 as they were then organized biannually in even years. If the claim has a grain of truth, Fink suggests that the portrait might have been included as "one of the ‘plusiers portraits, mème numeró’ at the Salon of 1810 (#809) or 1812 (#924). . . . I think you could make an educated guess that the portrait appeared at the 1810 or 1812 Salon." Lois M. Fink, Curator of Research Emeritus, National Museum of American Art, to Laura K. Mills, Curatorial Assistant, Worcester Art Museum, February 19, 1999, object file, Worcester Art Museum.