Luman Reed

Details

ASHER BROWN DURAND (1796-1886)
Luman Reed
oil on canvas laid down on masonite
30 1⁄2 x 25 1⁄2 in. (77.5 x 64.8 cm.)
Painted circa 1836.

Provenance

The family of the sitter.
Private collection, Hopewell, New Jersey, by descent, 1937.
Scott & Fowles, New York, circa 1940.
Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman, Detroit, Michigan, by 1964.
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, 1966.
Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III, New York, acquired from the above, 1967.
Gift to the present owner from the above, 1979.

Literature

F. Baekeland, "Collectors of American Painting, 1813 to 1913," American Art Review, vol. 3, no. 6, November-December 1976, p. 124, illustrated.
N. Cikovsky, Jr., America: The New World in 19th-Century Painting, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1999, p. 196.

Exhibited

Tucson, Arizona, University of Arizona, University Art Gallery, American Painting 1765-1963: Selections from the Lawrence A. and Barbara Fleischman Collection of American Art, February 1-March 29, 1964.
San Francisco, California, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, American Art from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd, April 17-November 7, 1976, pp. 94-95, no. 35, illustrated.
San Francisco, California, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, The Rockefeller Collection of American Art at The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, June 25-November 13, 1994, pp. 108-110, no. 34, illustrated.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Tylee Abbott Vice President, Head of American Art

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Lot Essay

New York dry goods merchant and well-known art patron Luman Reed played a critical role in the careers of Hudson River School masters Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand. He was instrumental in steering Durand away from engraving and towards painting and, in the 1830s, commissioned the artist to paint a series of all seven American presidents. In addition to the present example, there are four known portraits of Luman Reed by Durand. The first was painted in 1835 for Reed's business partner Jonathan Sturges, which is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. The other versions are an 1835 portrait in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, an 1844 version owned by the New York Historical Society, New York, and a circa 1835 version in the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland.

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