Summary edit

This sitter in this painting has been incorrectly identified as William Stoughton, a colonial Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, but according to Lily Pelekoudas in Special Collections the Boston Athenaeum (personal correspondence, Oct. 1, 2019): "This painting was determined to be of unclear provenance in the 1930s, as it was purchased in the 1920s from Frank Bayley who was suspected of fraud in the 30s and 40s- purchasing portraits of unknown sitters and selling them as "colonial" portraits of notable sitters. This discovery led the Athenaeum to remove its attribution to Duyckinck; it is now simply titled 'Portrait of a Man'."

An advertisement including this painting can be found in "Old-time New England," (The Bulletin of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities), Volume XI, No. 4, Serial No. 24 (April 1921), in an advertisement by F. W. Bayley & Son, Copley Gallery, 103 Newbury St., Boston, MA, regarding "Care and Restoration of Pictures", p. viii. (See: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b728202&view=1up&seq=70)

The false provenance of it was given in Massachusetts House Bill 1815 of 1924, "The provenance of the original was described as follows: it went to "his nephew, Lt. Governor William Tailer, son of his sister Rebecca. From Tailer it descended to his grand-daughter, Elizabeth Byles, whose father was for many years known in Boston as pastor of the Hollis Street Church. From her it descended through her nephew, Thomas Gawen Brown, from whose grand-daughter Elizabeth Brown the Boston Athenaeum obtained it through Mr. Frank W. Bailey." (See: https://archives.lib.state.ma.us/handle/2452/406348)

Licensing edit

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