The sitter's brother, Francis Ricketts.[1] Purchased at auction around 1853 by Peter Grain, Philadelphia.[2] (Barlow, Washington, D.C.); sold before 1867 to George W. Riggs [1813-1881], Washington;[3] his daughters, Alice Lawrason Riggs [1841-1927] and Jane Agnes Riggs [1853-1930], Washington; bequeathed by Jane Agnes Riggs to her friend, Mary F. McMullan; purchased by Pauline Riggs Noyes [Mrs. Robert B. Noyes], Pomfret, Connecticut, and New York; gift 1942 to NGA. [1] Thomas Allston Brown, "A Complete History of the Amphitheatre and Circus, from its earliest date, with sketches of some of the principal performers," _New York Clipper_ 8 (19 January 1861): 320. Francis Ricketts, also a circus performer, was last recorded in the United States in 1810, when he was with the Boston circus; see John Culhane, _The American Circus, An Illustrated History_, New York, 1990: 4, and LaVahn G. Hoh and William H. Rough, _Step Right Up! The Adventures of CIRCUS in America_, White Hall, Virginia, 1990: 55. [2] Brown 1861, 320. Peter Grain, a painter, was born in France around 1786 and came to the United States sometime before 1815. After living in various American cities, including New York and Charleston, he settled in Philadelphia around 1850 with his family, including his son Peter Grain, Jr.; George C. Groce and David H. Wallace, _The New-York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860_, New Haven and London, 1957: 270, and David Karel, _Dictionnaire des Artistes de Langue Française en Amérique du Nord_, Quebec, 1992: 360. [3] 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: 634-635, whose information came from Riggs' daughters. Henry T. Tuckerman, _Book of the Artists: American Artist Life Comprising Biographical and Critical Sketches of American Arts_, New York, 1867, 5th printing, 1870, reprint, New York, 1966: 110, 633, lists the painting, sitter unidentified, as in Riggs' collection. "Barlow" is probably the picture framer and dealer Henry N. Barlow, who worked in Washington at 237 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., in the mid 1860s, according to _Boyd's Washington and Georgetown Directory_ of 1865-1867.