Lot 184: PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR MATTHEW PRATT 1734-1805 PORTRAIT OF JAMES STANHOPE CLAYPOOL

Inscribed on the verso: James Stanhope Claypoole, age 24. Depicted seated at a rare Virginia Chippendale table with rectangular box-drawer

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Vose Galleries, Boston
CATALOGUE NOTE

On what appear to be the original stretchers; in the original giltwood frame with an exhibition plaque: James Stanhope Claypool/ Matthew - Pratt / Philadelphia 1734 - 1825.

Matthew Pratt (1734-1805). Portrait painter, born in Philadelphia September 23, 1734. From 1749 to 1755 he served his apprenticeship with his uncle, James Claypoole, limner and general painter, and in 1758 he began his career as a portrait painter in Philadelphia. From 1764 to 1766 he studied under Benjamin West in London and the following year and a half he spent in Bristol. After his return to America in 1768 Pratt spent most of his time in Philadelphia, though he is known to have visited England and Ireland in 1770, NYC in 1772, and Virginia in 1773. During the 1780's he added sign painting to his repertory. He died in Philadelphia January 9, 1805. Sawitzky, Matthew Pratt, 1734-1805, chronology and checklist, 43 plates; Flexner, The Light of Distant Skies, biblio., 265. - Excerpted from The New York Historical Society's Dictionary of American Artists.

60 by 50in.<br><br>152.4 by 127cm