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Provenance

Sophia Dwight Foster Burnside [Mrs. Samuel MacGregor Burnside, b. 1787], Worcester, Massachusetts; her daughter, Harriet Pamela Foster Burnside [1827-1903], Worcester, Massachusetts; bequeathed to Roger Sherman Baldwin Foster [1857-1924], New York;[1] his widow, Laura Pugh Moxley Foster Fitch;[2] (Fridenberg Galleries, New York, 1929);[3] (Russell W. Thorpe, Flushing, New York);[4] acquired 1929 by Francis Patrick Garvan [1875-1937], New York;[5] his estate; (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); sold 24 January 1947 to Henry Prather Fletcher [1873-1959], Newport, Rhode Island;[6] bequest 1960 to NGA.

[1] The early provenance is in John Hill Morgan and Mantle Fielding, The Life Portraits of Washington and their Replicas, Philadelphia, 1931, 182, no. 6. According to Knoedler, "SOPHIA R.F. BURNSIDE" is written on the reverse of the original canvas; see letter and provenance sheet from Elizabeth Clare, M. Knoedler & Co., 17 March 1960 (NGA curatorial file). Harriet Burnside left most of her estate to the children of her cousin Dwight Foster, among them Roger Foster; will, dated 10 July 1899, copy in NGA curatorial file. On the Fosters see Frederick Clifton Pierce, Foster Genealogy (Chicago, 1899), 222.

[2] Fitch provided the provenance in a letter to Harry MacNeill Bland of Fridenberg Galleries, 10 April 1929 (typed copy, NGA curatorial file, provided by Elizabeth Clare, M. Knoedler & Co., 17 March 1960).

[3] Information provided by the Frick Art Reference Library, based on a letter from Harry MacNeill Bland, Fridenberg Galleries, New York, 24 March 1930.

[4] Information from the Frick Art Reference Library, based on a letter from Russell W. Thorpe, 13 February 1942.

[5] For his dates, see Who Was Who in America, 1 (1897-1942) (Chicago, 1966), 442; Mrs. Garvan lent the painting to the American Art Galleries exhibition in September 1929.

[6] Letters from Elizabeth Clare, M. Knoedler & Co., 22 March 1960 and 1 April 1960, NGA curatorial file. Fletcher is listed in Who Was Who in America, 3 (1951-1960) (Chicago, 1963), 288.

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