(English/America, 1783–1872)
Dr. Leonard Koecker, M.D., D.D.S., 1818, oil on canvas, 35-3/8 x 27-3/4 in.; restored period carved gilt wood frame, 44 x 36-1/2 in.
Provenance: The sitter; By descent in the family to private collection, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Private Collection, New York; Michael Borghi Fine Art, New Jersey; Private collection, New Jersey, acquired directly from the above, 2004; By descent through the family to the present owner
Note: See attached research on this work by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D.
Exhibited: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Memorial Exhibition of Portraits by Thomas Sully, April 9–May 10, 1922, p. 40, no. 61, illus., loaned by his granddaughter, Miss Leonora L. Koecker, of Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, (label verso).
Literature: Charles Henry Hart, A Register of Portraits Painted by Thomas Sully, 1801–1871 (Philadelphia: Charles Henry Hart, 1908), p. 99, no. 966, as “Koecker, L. ‘Dentist,’ 1818”; Edward Biddle and Mantle Fielding. The Life and Works of Thomas Sully (1783–1872), (1921; reprinted Charleston: Garnier & Company, 1969), p. 201, no. 1001, as “Portrait begun Nov. 1st,181[7], finished Feb. 11th, 1818”.
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The sitter; By descent in the family to private collection, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Private Collection, New York; Michael Borghi Fine Art, New Jersey; Private collection, New Jersey, acquired directly from the above, 2004; By descent through the family to the present owner
lined, stabilized crackle, areas of retouch