William Sidney Mount  (1807-1868)- Portrait of John Smith Crary (1785-1837), together with a double portrait of his wife Henrietta Havens Crary (1784-1833) and daughter, Marion Virginia Crary (1826-1835), painted in 1831 (The daughter was previously mis-identified as Phoebe Lord Crary, born 1813).

Oil on canvas, in gilt-carved frames.

Frame: H 44-1/2" W 38".

Sight: H 35-1/2" W 28-1/2".

Exhibited: National Academy of Design, New York, 1832, nos. 212 and 213. Also exhibited: Portraits from our Past, National Society of Colonial Dames, New York, March, 1962, loaned by Lentilhon Gilford (Mrs. Rudolph von Fluegge) 

Literature: included in William Sidney Mount: Artist’s Record Book, 1831. Alfred Frankenstein, William Sidney Mount, Harry N. Abrams Publisher, N.Y., 1975, p. 482. Frick Museum Art Reference Library Photo Archive

Provenance: 

By descent in the family of the sitter Lentilhon Gilford (Mrs. Rudolph von Fluegge) 1895-1981, a direct descendant of Crary, Robert E. Kinnaman & Brian A. Ramaekers, Bridgehampton, New York. 

Sotheby’s: American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, N.Y., 3-14-2001, lot 15 ($23,750). 

William A. Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine (accession #s: 2001.14.1 and 2001.14.2)

With his roots in Stonington, Connecticut, John Smith Crary’s parents: Peter Crary III (1748-1823) and Lucretia Palmer (1751-1822), came from two prominent colonial Connecticut families. Around the time he was born, his parents moved to New York City. It is likely that John Smith Crary first studied law, but by his early twenties was already a notable China trade silk merchant in business with his brother, Peter Crary IV, in lower Manhattan. By around 1810, Crary was in Canton, China (a portrait of John Smith Crary, in his offices in Canton, by the Chinese portrait painter, Spoilum, recently surfaced in Connecticut.). John Smith Crary’s nephew, Edward Charles Crary, married Robert Fulton’s daughter, Cornelia Livingston Fulton, on June 20, 1831.

By 1827, John Smith Crary had become a man of immense wealth and influence in many enterprises: he built a house on prestigious Hudson Square in New York City, on land purchased from John Jacob Astor; owned a storefront on Pine Street (a store formerly occupied by Astor for many years), and rented a pew at the prominent Trinity Church in lower Manhattan. Crary was at the height of his success when his portrait was painted by William Sidney Mount in 1831. Significantly, by 1833, Crary had become a Director of the Phenix Bank on Wall Street, New York; and the first President and a Director of the New York, Providence & Boston Railroad (known as the Stonington Line). 

Obviously beloved in the city, a New York newspaper account, dated November 2, 1837, reported:

The flags of the shipping were all at half mast 

yesterday, in consequence of the death of 

John Smith Crary, esq.

A year after his death, the New York, Providence & Boston Railroad began regular service to a depot on the Providence Harbor, at the newly-named “Crary Street.”

Condition: Inspected under UV light. No restoration noted. Minor wear to frames.

Link to high-res images:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/uqlo1ljf5zpjdv9rghfbg/AA1yUbSIjPqSuKIU1WWDgPw?rlkey=y9fvekz4zrhb6ww2m8m0sd9w0&st=acm5r0l0&dl=0