Artwork
Elisha Doane
Elisha Doane is an oil painting. It dates from 1783 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Elisha Doane sits in a plain wooden chair, his coat a brown so dark it reads as black against the light gray background. Soft light brings his face forward, and the coat's fabric is rendered convincingly. Oil on canvas, 1783.
Subject & Meaning
The painting’s provenance traces a continuous ownership from the sitter’s descendants to major collectors, underscoring its historical significance.
The 1783 oil portrait presents Elisha Doane, a New England merchant and militia officer, as its central figure; the composition emphasizes his respectable status through formal attire and a direct gaze, typical of elite portraiture of the period. As the main subject identified in the work’s catalog records, Doane’s depiction functions as a visual record of family prominence and civic involvement, reflecting the Enlightenment-era valorization of individual achievement and commercial success. The painting’s provenance traces a continuous ownership from the sitter’s descendants to major collectors, underscoring its historical significance.
Technique & Style
The portrait of Elisha Doane is executed in oil on canvas, a standard medium for late 18th-century American portraiture. The work measures 101.7 by 84.2 centimeters, a substantial half-length or three-quarter format consistent with formal portrait conventions of the period. Classified as a painting within the portrait genre, it depicts the named sitter and is held in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The provenance records note two labels affixed to the stretcher, indicating that the original canvas support and stretcher bars survive with period auction-house markings from the 1929 sale.
The painting was gifted to the NGA in 1943 by Chester Dale, and its documented chain of ownership through family descent and successive dealers suggests the canvas, ground, and paint layers have remained largely intact, though no specific conservation or condition report is detailed in the available records.
History & Provenance
The portrait of Elisha Doane was created in 1783 and descended through familial lines before entering the art market. After the sitter’s death, the work passed to his son, James Cutler Doane, and later to his granddaughter, Harriet Doane. By around 1920, it was acquired by Dwight Prouty in Boston, then moved through dealers Brooks Reed and Israel Sack, and into the possession of James P. Labey in New York.
Labey consigned the painting to a 1929 auction where Chester Dale purchased it. Dale later gifted the portrait to the National Gallery of Art in 1943, where it remains.
Following a lineage of family ownership through the sitter's son and granddaughter, the portrait was sold circa 1920 and passed through several dealers before appearing at a James P. Silo auction in New York on February 16, 1929. Chester Dale subsequently acquired the work and donated it to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1943, where it remains in the collection. While the painting is physically held at the National Gallery of Art, the provided records do not list specific public exhibitions or assign a formal accession number beyond its inclusion in the Chester Dale Collection.
Overview
The oil on canvas painting titled "Elisha Doane" presents a direct portrayal of a specific individual. This work is part of the collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The artist depicted the subject seated in a simple wooden chair, set against a plain, light gray background, focusing on a realistic representation rather than an idealized image.
Artist & collection
