John Wollaston
Born England, active 1742–75.

Ann Gibbes (Mrs. Edward Thomas), 17671
Oil on canvas
30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Museum purchase, 1946.1

Inscription
Lower right, in black paint, on the marble tabletop: " Wollaston, Fecit, 1767."

Provenance
Mrs. James Ritchie Sparkman (Mary Elizabeth Heriot) (1827–1912); to her son Edward Heriot Sparkman (1846–1934); to his daughter Mary A. Sparkman, a great-great-great granddaughter of the sitter, who sold it to the Worcester Art Museum in 1946.2

References
Bolton and Binsse 1931, 32, 52.

"Worcester’s Wollaston," Art Digest 20: 20 (September 15, 1946): 7.

Worcester Annual Report 1946, 12, 17.

Worcester News Bulletin 12: 2 (November 1946): 7.

Worcester 1948, 76.

Thorne 1951, 206.

Groce 1952, 134, 136, 137, 146, 149.

Corcoran Gallery of Art 1960, 12, 13.

McCormack 1970, 787.

Worcester 1973, 151.

Sherrill 1975, 32.

Weekley 1976, 228, 237.

Reutlinger 1976, 20, 21.

Mead Art Gallery 1978, 216.

Teitz 1979, 26, 27.

Saunders and Miles 1987, 181–82.

Quinn 1991, I, 29.

Warren 1998, 175.

Exhibitions
American Painters of the South
, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., April 23– June 5, 1960, cat. no. 11.

The Colonial Epoch in America, Worcester Art Museum, April 18, 1975–January 4, 1976, cat. pp. 20, 21.

American Art from the Collection of the Worcester Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Tex., April 27–June 23, 1979, cat. pp. 26, 27.

American Colonial Portraits, 1700–1776, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., October 9, 1987–January 10, 1988, cat. no. 51.

Notes
1. This painting also has been published as: Mrs. Edward Thomas (Ann Gibbes) (Bolton and Binsse 1931, 32, 52); Anne Gibbes (Mrs. Edward Thomas); Portrait of Anne Gibbes (Mrs. Edward Thomas) (Worcester Annual Report 1946, 12, 17); Ann Gibbes Thomas ("Worcester’s Wollaston," Art Digest 20: 20 [September 15, 1946]: 7); Ann Gibbs (Sherrill 1975, 32); and Portrait of Ann Gibbes (Mrs. Edward Thomas) (Worcester News Bulletin 12: 2 [November 1946]: 7).

2. The following is a possible line of descent for the portrait: Ann Gibbes Thomas (1752–1781); to her daughter Mary Thomas Heriot (1771–1806); to her son Edward Thomas Heriot (1793–1854); to his daughter Mary Elizabeth Heriot (Mrs. James Ritchie Sparkman) (1827–1912); to her son Edward Heriot Sparkman (1846–1934); to his daughter Mary Augusta Sparkman. For the known history of the painting, see Mary Sparkman to Louisa Dresser, September 26, 1945. Edward Heriot Sparkman owned the portrait in 1923; see Ethelwyn Manning, Frick Art Reference Library, New York, to Louisa Dresser, September 6, 1945.