(English/America, 1783-1872)

Portrait of Henry McIlvaine (1805-1851), 1836, monogrammed and dated lower left "TS 1836", additional later inscription on canvas verso, oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in.; gilt wood and composition frame, 41-1/4 x 36 -1/4 x 3-1/2 in.

Provenance: Henry McIlvaine, 1836-51; by descent in the family to Mary McIlvaine Parsons (Mrs. John E. Parsons); to her daughter, Constance Parsons Hare (Mrs. J. Montgomery Hare, Jr.), New York (see letterhead remnant verso); Private Collection, Boston, Massachusetts

Note: Preserved verso is a typewritten letter discussing the sitter's life on letterhead of Mrs. Montgomery Hare. Also bears later inscription referencing sitter and artist on canvas verso.

Henry McIlvaine came from a distinguished New Jersey family. His father, Joseph McIlvaine, Jr., was both a prominent lawyer, the United States Attorney for the district of New Jersey, and a United States Senator. Henry received his law degree from Princeton in 1823, was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 1826, and was a prominent advocate at the time of his early death at age 46.

Literature: Charles Henry Hart, ed., A Register of Portraits Painted by Thomas Sully, 1801–1871 (1919), pg. 112, no. 1114; Edward Biddle and Mantle Fielding, The Life and Works of Thomas Sully (1921), p. 220 no. 1154