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Formal portrait of a man in eighteenth-century velvet jacket leaning against a table from the left.

A man, Ralph Inman, stands in three-quarter view, looking at the viewer as his body faces right. He has a young full face with blue eyes, closed lips, and wears a grey curly wig. His long velvet jacket is open with buttons along the edge, with a white shirt underneath with ruffle down the neck and at the cuff. His right elbow rests on a table forming a triangle to his hip. His right hand holds a small piece of paper, the left arm is not seen. The background is a suggestion of a wall and sky with cloud.

Gallery Text

These portraits were painted to commemorate the 1746 marriage of Ralph (1713–1788) and Susannah (1727–1761) Inman. The works show Feke, the first major painter born in colonial America, at the height of his powers. Drawing inspiration from the engravings of British portraits that circulated throughout the Atlantic world, Feke fashioned the Inmans as London aristocrats, modeling their clothing and poses on the work of the period’s leading British painters.

These portraits remained in the same family for 250 years. They were first displayed at the Inman estate in East Cambridge, a large property financed through the vast fortune the family accumulated importing ceramics, glass, wine, and beer. After Ralph Inman’s death, the portraits were passed down through eight generations of Inman descendants. In 2004, they were presented to the Harvard Art Museums.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2004.219
People
Robert Feke, American (Oyster Bay, NY c. 1707 - c. 1752 Bermuda)
Title
Ralph Inman (1713-1788)
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1748
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/31171

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
91.4 x 74.9 cm (36 x 29 1/2 in.)
frame: 108 x 92.1 x 5.1 cm (42 1/2 x 36 1/4 x 2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: R

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Probable descent, from Ralph Inman to his sister-in-law, Hannah (Speakman) Rowe (1725-1805); by descent to her grandniece, Hannah Rowe (Linzee) Amory (1775-1845); to William Amory I (1804-1888); to his wife, Anna Powell Mason Sears (1813-1895); to their sons in succession, William II (1833-1907), Charles Walter "Ned" (1842-1913) and Francis Inman (1850-1921); to William Amory Gardner (1863-1930), to William Amory III (1869-1954); to his nephew, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge III (1893-1959); to his nephew Frederic Winthrop, Jr. (1906-1979); John Linzee Coolidge (1937-); to his sister, Catherine Coolidge Lastavica.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Catherine Coolidge Lastavica, M.D.
Accession Year
2004
Object Number
2004.219
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Anne Rowe Cunningham, Letters and Diary of John Rowe, Boston Merchant 1759-1762; 1764-1779 (Boston, 1903), p. 220
  • Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences Museum, Early American Paintings: Catalogue of An Exhibition Held in the Museum of the Brooklyn Insitute of Arts and Sciences, exh. cat. (Brooklyn, 1917), p. v
  • John William Linzee, The Lindesie and Limesi Families of Great Britain (Boston, 1917), vol.1. ill. opp. p. 112; vol. 2, 600
  • Cuthbert Lee, Early American Portrait Painters: The Fourteen Principal Earliest Native-born Painters, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT, 1929), p. 179
  • Frank William Bayley, Five Colonial Artists of New England: Joseph Badger, Joseph Blackburn, John Singleton Copley, Robert Feke, John Smibert, Southworth Press (Boston, 1929), p. 317
  • Henry Wilder Foote, Robert Feke: Colonial Portrait Painter, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1930), pp. 72, 76, 159-160
  • Historical Records Survey, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Works Progress Administration, American Portraits, 1620-1825, found in Massachusetts, Volumes 1 and 2, Historical Records Survey (Boston, MA, 1939), p. 215, cat. 1137
  • Lloyd Goodrich, Robert Feke, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY, 1946), no. 15, ill.
  • Albert Delmont Smith, Robert Feke, native colonial painter. List of paintings on exhibition, November 2 to November 10, 1946, exh. cat., The Heckscher Museum of Art (1946), p. 40
  • Henry Wilder Foote, "Robert Feke as Revealed in the Recent Exhibition of Portraits,", Art In America (January 1947), pp. 159-60, fig. 6
  • R. Peter Mooz, "The Art of Robert Feke" (1970), University of Pennsylvania, pp. x, 108, 124, 150-52, 192, 228
  • Jeannine Falino, Lives Shaped by the American Revolution: Portraits of a Boston Family, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 2005), pp. 54-5, cat. 2, ill.
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, Volume One: Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Artists Born before 1826, Yale University Press (U.S.) and Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge and New Haven, 2014), pp. 35, 200, cat. 150, ill.

Exhibition History

  • Robert Feke, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 10/08/1946 - 10/30/1946; The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, 11/02/1946 - 11/10/1946; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 11/27/1946 - 12/22/1946
  • 32Q: 2410 South Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 07/25/2022

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu