Major-General Henry Dearborn

1812

Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755–1828)

Gilbert Stuart’s idealized portrayal of Major-General Henry Dearborn presents an aging, yet robust military leader invigorated by power and the challenge of the War of 1812. A Revolutionary War hero who served as secretary of war during Thomas Jefferson’s two presidential terms (1801–09), Dearborn continued his service as senior major-general in the 1812 campaign. This work is one of several likenesses Stuart executed of American
military and political men, among them his well-known depictions of George Washington. Stuart painted directly on the panel or canvas over the course of several sittings, capturing the new country’s fervent nationalism in skillful, vigorous portraits.

Status: On View, Gallery 169
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Gilbert Stuart
Title: Major-General Henry Dearborn
Place: Roxbury (Place depicted)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1812
Medium: Oil on mahogany panel
Dimensions: 71.5 × 57.1 cm (28 3/16 × 22 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Friends of American Art Collection
Reference Number: 1913.793
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/69619/manifest.json

George C. Mason, The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart (1879; repr., Burt Franklin Reprints, 1972), 170–171.
Justin H. Smith, “The Prologue of the American Revolution,” Century Magazine, 65, 4 (February 1903), 543.
“Important Pictures in New York Galleries,” Fine Arts Journal 29 (1913), 717–722.
“Notes: Gifts of the Friends,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, 7, 4 (April 1914), 4, ill. p. 55.
Lorinda Munson Bryant, American Pictures and their Painters (New York: John Lane company, 1917), 30–32.
Lawrence Park, Gilbert Stuart (New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1926) v.1, no. 224, 268–269.
Eugen Neuhaus, The History and Ideals of American Art (Stanford University Press, 1931), ill. p. 32.
C.J. Bulliet, Art Masterpieces in a Century of Progress Fine Arts Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: North–Mariano Press, c. 1933).
David A. Hanks, “American Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Magazine Antiques (September 1973), 408–417, ill. p. 417.
Richard McLanathan, Gilbert Stuart (New York: Abrams, 1986), 86, ill.
Milo M. Naeve, “The Edwardian Era and Patrons of American Art at the Art Institute of Chicago: The Birth of a Tradition,” America’s International Exposition of Fine Art and Antiques (Chicago: The Lakeside Group, 1988), fig. 6, 23, ill.
Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago (Boston and Toronto: Little, brown, 1988), 77, ill.
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 138–9, ill.

The Boston Atheneum Gallery, Exhibition of Portraits Painted by the Late Gilbert Stuart, Esq., Aug. 4–Aug. 30, 1828, cat. no. 197.
Bostonian Society Galleries, Old State House, Loan Collection, Jan. 1885–Apr. 1886, incorrectly cited as lent by Miss Mary Dearborn instead of Mrs. Maria Dearborn (Mrs. George Henry Raleigh Dearborn).
Art Institute of Chicago, Loan Exhibition of Portraits, Jan. 2–22, 1905, cat. no. 120, lent by the Calumet Club.
Art Institute of Chicago, Loan Exhibition of American Paintings, Jan. 8–28, 1914, cat. no. 15.
Art Institute of Chicago, Special Exhibition of the Works in the Friends of American Art Collection, May 15–June 15, 1919.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1– Nov. 1, 1933, cat. no. 424, ill.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1– Nov. 1, 1934, cat. no. 378.
Indianapolis, Ind, John Herron Art Museum, Retrospective Exhibition of Portraits by Gilbert Stuart, 1755–1828, Jan. 1–Feb. 8, 1942, ct. no. 25, ill.
Michigan, Grand Rapids Art Gallery, Art of the American Colonial and Revolutionary Periods, Sept. 26–Oct. 31, 1943.
Milwaukee Art Institute, 19th Century American Masters, Feb. 20–Mar. 28, 1948.
Art Institute of Chicago, From Colony to Nation: An Exhibition of American Painting, Silver and Architecture from 1650 to the War of 1812, Apr. 21–June 19, 1949, cat. no. 112.
Art Institute of Chicago, Two Centuries of American Art, 1750-1950, Oct. 1, 1959–Jan. 10, 1960, no cat. [downloadable checklist available].
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gilbert Stuart, Oct. 18, 2004 – Jan. 16, 2005,
The National Gallery of Art, Mar. 27, 2004 – July 31, 2005

Henry Dearborn, Boston and Roxbury, MA, 1812; by descent to Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn, Roxbury, MA, 1829; by descent to Henry George Raleigh Dearborn (died 1884), Roxbury, MA, 1851; by descent to Mrs. Henry George Raleigh Dearborn, Roxbury, MA 1884; sold to the Chicago Commercial Club, 1886; given by them to Calumet Club, Chicago, 1886; H.L. Pratt, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1912; M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1913; Henry Reinhardt Galleries, Chicago, 1914; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1914.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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