John Barrett
Framed: 58 x 49 x 3 inches (147.32 x 124.46 x 7.62 cm)
- 211
Loan Exhibition of One Hundred Colonial Portraits, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, June 19–September 21, 1930, unnumbered.
Kaleidoscope of American Painting: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Mo., December 2, 1977–January 22, 1978, nos. 5 and 6.
Copley was the most successful painter in colonial Boston until 1774 when he departed for London and was especially regarded for his ability to portray truthful likenesses. He successfully captured John Barrett's physical presence and emotional character by placing his brightly lit and carefully painted face against a dark background and highlighting such details as his hands, quill and the wig powder residue on his shoulder.
Nathaniel Augustus Barrett (grandson of the sitters), before 1873;
By descent to Miss S[arah?] D[orr?] Barrett (great-granddaughter of the sitters);
Estate of Miss S. D. Barrett;
to Barrett Wendell (great-greatgrandson of the sitters; nephew of Miss S. D. Barrett), c. 1915;
to Mrs. Barrett Wendell, Boston, by 1937;
F. Lee H. Wendell (great-great-great-great-grandson of the sitters), Lake Forest, Ill.;
Purchased from Wendell, through Vose Galleries, stock nos. 24898 and 24899, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1976 (John Barrett) and 1977 (Mrs. John Barrett).
An asterisk [*] indicates references that pertain to John Barrett only.
Augustus Thorndike Perkins, A Sketch of
the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley (Boston:
James R. Osgood & Company, 1873), 34–35.
Rev. Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, “Old Boston Families II: The Family of Capt. John Gerrish,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register 67 (April 1913), 110.
Frank W. Bayley, The Life and Works of
John Singleton Copley (Boston: Taylor Press, 1915), 54–56.
L. Vernon Briggs, History and Genealogy of the Cabot Family, 1475–1927 (Boston: Charles E. Goodspeed & Co., 1927), 1: unpaginated (as Deacon John Barrett and Sarah Gerrish).
Albert Franz Cochrane, “Great Exhibition of Colonial Portraiture at Boston Museum,” Boston Evening Transcript, June 28, 1930, sec. 3, 11.
Theodore Bolton and Harry Lorin Binsse, “John Singleton Copley,” Antiquarian 15 (December 1930), 116.
Loan Exhibition of One Hundred Colonial Portraits, exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1930), 11–12.
Barbara Neville Parker and Anne Bolling Wheeler, John Singleton Copley: American Portraits in Oil, Pastel, and Miniature with Biographical Sketches (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1938), 32–34, pls. 24–25.
Historical Records Survey, American Portraits, 1620–1825, Found in Massachusetts; Prepared by the Historical Records Survey, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Works Progress Administration (Boston: Historical Records Survey, 1939), 1: 28 (Mrs. John Barrett as Sarah [Gerrish] Barrett).
Jules David Prown, John Singleton Copley (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966), 1: xvii, 28–29, 41, 54n3, 208, pls. 58–59.
David A. Hanks, “American Decorative Art: The Colonies and Early Republic,” Apollo 94 (September 1971), 235–36 (John Barrett as Portrait of John Barrett).
American Art of the Colonies and Early Republic, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1971), 62–63 (as Portrait of John Barrett and Portrait of Mrs. John Barrett).
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds. Arts of the Occident. Vol. 1. Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts. 5th ed. (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 251.
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, May 23, 1974, lot 5 (as Mr. and Mrs. John Barrett).
Advertisement, Antiques 105 (May 1974), 956–57 (as Portrait of Mr. John Barrett and Portrait of Mrs. John Barrett).
“Kaleidoscope of American Painting,” Wednesday Magazine (Overland Park,
Kans.), November 30, 1977, 15 (as Mr. and
Mrs. Barrett).
Donald Hoffmann, “American Exhibit Unveils 5 New Gifts to Nelson,” Kansas City Times, December 2, 1977, 1A, 8A.
“Pictures at an Exhibition,” Independent (Kansas City, Mo.), December 3, 1977, 17.
“Kemper Gifts to the Nelson,” Kansas City Times, December 6, 1977, 34.
“American Painting Exhibit Comes to Nelson
Gallery,” Johnson County Sun
(Overland Park, Kans.), December 9,
1977, 5B (as Mr. and Mrs. Barrett).
Donald Hoffmann, “Images from a New Land,” Kansas City Star, December 11, 1977, 1D.
“Exhibitions: Kaleidoscope of American Painting: Eighteenth and Nineteenth
Centuries,” Gallery Events (William Rockhill
Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts), December 1977,
unpaginated (as Mr. John Barrett and Mrs. Barrett).
Kaleidoscope of American Painting: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. exh. cat. (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1977), 8, 14–15 (Mrs. John Barrett as Mrs. John Barrett [Sarah Gerrish]).
“Exhibitions: Kaleidoscope of American Painting: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,” Gallery Events (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts), January 1978, unpaginated, cover (as Mr. John Barrett, Mrs. Barrett, and Portrait of Mrs. Barrett).
“Art across North America,” Apollo 107 (April 1978), 328 (as Portrait of John Barrett and Portrait of Mrs. Barrett).
Ralph T. Coe, “Valuable Gifts,” letter to the editor, Kansas City Star, May 7, 1980, 18A.
Kathleen Spindler-Cruden, “Saving Grace,” Kansas City Star, September 12, 1982, Weekly Magazine sec., 32 (Mrs. John Barrett only).
Ross E. Taggart, “American Paintings in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri,” Antiques 122 (November 1982), 1026–27, 1032 (Mrs. John Barrett as Sarah Gerrish Barrett).
Henry Adams, Handbook of American Paintings in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1991), 16–17 (as Mr. John Barrett and Mrs. John Barrett [Sarah Gerrish Barrett]).
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collections. 6th ed. (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 228, 230 (as Portrait of Mr. John Barrett and Portrait of Mrs. John Barrett).
Michael Churchman and Scott Erbes, High Ideals and Aspirations: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art 1933–1993 (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 100 (as Portrait of Mr. John Barrett and Portrait of Mrs. John Barrett).
*Alice Thorson, “Uncover the Painting, Discover the Past,” Kansas City Star, June 9, 1998, E5 (as Portrait of Mr. John Barrett).
*Joan Barzilay Freund and Leigh Keno, “The Making and Marketing of Boston Seating Furniture in the Late Baroque Style,” in American Furniture, 1998, ed. Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, for the Chipstone Foundation, 1998), 28–29.
Margaret C. Conrads, ed. The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945 (Kansas City, Mo.: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007), 1: 200–204, 2: 94–95.
