Dr. John Sappington

Artist George Caleb Bingham (American, 1811 - 1879)

Dateca. 1844

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 36 3/8 × 28 3/8 inches (92.39 × 72.07 cm)
Framed: 41 1/2 × 33 3/4 × 2 3/8 inches (105.41 × 85.73 × 6.03 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mary Katherine Hall Horner and Charles D. Horner in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Motter Hall and the 75th anniversary of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Object number2011.20.1

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

American Art

Terms

DescriptionThe portrait is of a seated Caucasian male with short white hair and dark eyes. Posed before a non-descript brown background and dressed in a black suit coat with wide lapels, a white vest, and white shirt, the gentleman looks directly out at the viewer while his body angles slightly to the right. His proper right hand rests on a stack of papers atop a desk or table near the lower left corner of the composition. The sitter has been identified as Dr. John Sappington, an important nineteenth-century physician who practiced near Arrow Rock, Missouri. Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Bingham@200, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., March 9, 2011-October 2, 2011, no cat.

Magnificent Gifts for the 75th, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., February 11, 2010-April 4, 2010, no cat.

Bingham to Benton: The Midwest as Muse, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., February 5, 2005 - July 31, 2005, no cat.

Gallery Label

Although best-known as a genre painter who secured a national reputation for his images of Missouri life, George Caleb Bingham made most of his income from portraiture. Over five decades, he painted more than 200 Missouri citizens. Arrow Rock, Missouri, residents Dr. John Sappington and his wife Jane Breathitt Sappington were the only couple whose portraits Bingham painted three times. By portraying Dr. Sappington with his papers (possibly the manuscript of his Theory and Treatment of Fevers, 1843) and Mrs. Sappington holding her glasses (the sign of a literate woman), Bingham followed the Grand Manner portrait tradition of picturing attributes that reflect a sitter’s profession or status in society.

Provenance

Dr. John and Jane Breathitt Sappington (sitters), c. 1844;

possibly to Mrs. Archibald Morrison;

possibly to Mrs. Lawrence Morrison, Kansas City, Mo.;

to C. Lester Hall, Jr. (great-grandson of the sitter), Kansas City, Mo.;

to Mrs. C. Lester Hall, Jr., Kansas City, Mo.;

to Joshua Motter Hall (nephew of C. Lester Hall, Jr.), Kansas City, Mo., 1968;

to Mary Katherine Hall Horner and Charles D. Horner, Kansas City, Mo.;

to NAMA, 2011.

Published References

E. Maurice Bloch, The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham: The Evolution of an Artist (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967), 1: 186-187, 2: 50.

E. Maurice Bloch, The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham: A Catalogue Raisonne (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1986), 63, 170.

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