Provenance
The sitter's great-grandson, Thomas Duncan Smith [1812-1880], Philadelphia;[1] his widow, Mrs. Thomas Duncan Smith, Philadelphia;[2] their son, William Rudolph Smith [d. 1922], Philadelphia;[3] sold by the trustees of his estate on 30 January 1923 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[4] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection on 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] This portrait is first recorded in Museum of Fine Arts, "Portraits Painted by Stuart...taken from Mason's _Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart," _Exhibition of Portraits Painted by Gilbert Stuart, Boston, 1880, 29, no. 20, as being owned by Thomas D. Smith. Lawrence Park, _Gilbert Stuart: An Illustrated Descriptive List of his Works, with an Account of his Life by John Hill Morgan and an Appreciation by Royal Cortissoz_, 4 vols., New York, 1926, 105 106, proposed that the provenance was from Joseph Anthony, Jr. (1762 1814), Philadelphia, the son of the sitter, to his daughter Eliza Anthony Smith (Mrs. William Rudolph Smith, 1789 1821), and after her husband's death in 1868, to their son Thomas D. Smith.
[2] _Loan Exhibition of Historical Portraits_, Exh. cat., The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1887, as lent by "Mrs. Thomas D. Smith."
[3] "J. Rudolph Smith" is listed as the owner in "Stuart," _Masters in Art: A Series of Illustrated Monographs_, vol. 7, part 73, Boston, 1906, 39; Mantle Fielding, "Paintings by Gilbert Stuart Not Mentioned in Mason's Life of Stuart," _Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography_ 38 (July 1914), 315, lists "William R. Smith" as the owner.
[4] A letter from Gordon Howard of Frank Partridge, Inc., New York, dated 23 January 1923, to Thomas B. Clarke, discusses the condition and price of the painting after it was offered for sale at Maclees' Gallery in Philadelphia (NGA curatorial file). The name of the seller and the date of purchase are recorded in a copy of _Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Collected by Thomas B. Clarke_ (Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928) annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library).
Accession Number
1942.8.11
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 91.5 x 71 cm (36 x 27 15/16 in.) | framed: 123.8 x 103.2 cm (48 3/4 x 40 5/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas American
Background & Context
Background Story
Captain Joseph Anthony (1794) represents Stuart's engagement with maritime portraiture—a significant genre in the early Republic, when sea trade and naval activity defined American economic and strategic interests. Captain Anthony, presumably a merchant captain or naval officer, is depicted with the attributes of his profession, presenting a figure whose identity is inseparable from his relationship with the sea. The year 1794 was a critical one for American maritime interests: the young republic was navigating conflicts with Barbary pirates and British impressment of American sailors—issues that would intensify and eventually contribute to the War of 1812. Stuart's portrait captures the maritime confidence that characterized the Federal period's commercial expansion. Captain Anthony's demeanor likely combines the authority of command with the alertness that ocean navigation demanded—a psychological complexity that Stuart renders with characteristic subtlety. The portrait was painted during Stuart's most productive Philadelphia period, when he had established himself as the new nation's premier portraitist and was painting the founding generation with the urgency of an artist recording a historical epoch in real time.
Cultural Impact
Stuart's maritime portraits influenced how American seafaring life was represented in art, contributing to the cultural mythology of the merchant captain as a figure of national independence and enterprise. The portraits influenced later American maritime painting and the broader tradition of depicting naval and commercial figures. The portraits also documented the specific material culture of American maritime dress and appearance at the turn of the 19th century.
Why It Matters
This portrait matters because it represents the maritime dimension of the early American Republic—a dimension that was economically essential yet often overshadowed by political and agrarian narratives of national identity. Captain Anthony stands for the commercial seafarers who carried American goods to world markets and who would defend American interests at sea, making the portrait a document of economic as well as artistic significance.
