Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller

ADOLF ULRIC WERTMULLER (1751-1811) Portrait of a Man, Possibly Samuel Donaldson oil on wood 30 x 24¾ in. By descent in the family of the the sitter Mary H. Sully, Philadelphia John Levy Galleries, New York, 1941 Newhouse Galleries, New York, 1952 North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina, by purchase Betty Chamberlain, "North Carolina: First State-Initiated Collection, How to Get and Spend A Million Dollars For Art," Art News (April 1956), p. 39. W.R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh, North Carolina, 1956), no. 39. North Carolina Museum of Art, American Paintings to 1900: Catalogue of Paintings (Raleigh, North Carolina, 1966), no. 60. Charlotte Museum of Art, American Paintings from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art (Charlotte, North Carolina, 1975), no. 39. Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1983), p. 231. New York, John Levy Galleries, The Mary H. Sully Collection of American Paintings, 26 November-31 December 1941. Charlotte, North Carolina, Mint Museum of Art, American Paintings from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art, 7 September-19 October 1975.

Adolf Ulric Wertmüller (Stockholm 1751-1811 WilmingtonCity) Portrait of a lady, bust-length, in a white dress and a lace veil,in a painted oval oil on canvas 52 x 46 cm. in a mid 18th Century European frame THE PROPERTY OF THE LATE CAESAR AND RUTH PINNAU Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 7 March 1969, lot 37 (£199.10).

281. Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller 1751-1811 "Jules Charton" and his sister "EmelieCharton". A pair. SignedA:Wertmüller. S and dated á Lyon 1786. Canvas,oval, each 58 x 46 cm. Period gilded frames. Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller was born in 1751 in Stockholm but wasmainly to work abroad during his lifetime. He began hisartistic training by studying sculpture but was later introduced topainting and became a student of Lorens Pasch the Younger. At the age of twenty one he left Stockholm and traveled toParis where he was welcomed by his older cousin, Alexander Roslin,who at that time had been active in the French capital in just overtwenty years and gained great fame as one of the city's most valuedportraitist. Very soon Wertmüller joined the Rococo periodand the opposition direction, his new teacher was Joseph-MarieVien, a leading figure in the nascent neo-classicism. 1775Vien was appointed director of the French Academy in Rome and wentto Italy accompanied by many disciples, including Wertmüller whotook the opportunity to study the Roman forms in place. Back in Paris, he was named by Gustav III, as first royal courtpainter, and he became a member of the newly founded Royal Academyof Art and also in the French equivalent. The harsh climate in Europe and the intrigues within theprofessional circles, led Wertmüller to leave Paris in 1788 andtravel to Bordeaux. With the outbreak of the RevolutionWertmüller lost most of his savings. He then decided tofirst travel to Spain and then on to the U.S. where hearrived 1794. Everywhere he was well received and shortly after his arrival hewas commissioned to paint the portrait that was to become his mostfamous work, the portrait of George Washington. Wertmüllers artistry represents a transition from Rococobright, delicate features to the more sober and polishedclassicism. Inspired by Vien and David, but also ofAmerican realism, Wertmüller worked with light and darkness tocreate the life and emotion of the more restrained classicalpaintings. Wertmüller painted two portraits of Thomas Charton and hiswife, Anne-Marie Charton, in December 1779. Thomas Chartonwas a wealthy art collector who introduced Wertmüller for hisinfluential friends. On the back is a dedication thatexpress Wertmüllers gratitude to the couple. These twoportraits of the couple's children, dated 1781, provide us withfurther evidence of the artist's devotion to family Charton. The portrait of their son, Jules, portrays the boy with a bunchof grapes and a wine glass. Her daughter is in an apple -the fruit of wisdom. As the portraits are mentioned inWertmüllers Note tous mes ouvrages finis to the paintings have beenpresented as a gift to the parents. Although the artist's portraits are usually characterized by acertain cold wakes these two paintings radiate life. Theyoung Charton is mischievously up the wine god, Bacchus (Dionysus),attributes wine vessel, and one cluster of grapes. Hishair is tousled and he seems somewhat guiltily, turns our attentionto someone standing beside the artist. His sister strokingan apple while she her eyes are lost in something that is hiddenfrom the viewer. Besides being a symbol of wisdom is alink between the apple and the biblical fall. The detailsof the paintings so that the apple, glass and grapes are skillfullypainted and also the material limits.

ADOLF ULRIC WERTMÜLLER (1751-1811) - SELF PORTRAIT AND PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST'S WIFE - PROPERTY FROM A FAMILY COLLECTION
Mis: one: 6 1/2 by 5 1/2 in.; 16.5 by 14 cm.; the other: 6 1/2 by 5 1/4 in.; 16.5 by 13.3 cm.
both signed with the artist's initials and dated 1801 a pair, oval, oil on panel, one unframed Quantity: 2

PROVENANCE
Keating Simons I (1753 - 1834), Middleburgh Plantation, outside Charleston, South Carolina, by descent in the family to the present owner.

CATALOGUE NOTE
The present pair of paintings comprise a self-portrait of the artist and a portrait of his wife Elizbeth Henderson, painted soon after their marriage in Philadelphia on the 8th of January, 1801. The peripatetic Wertmüller had left his native Sweden, and after studying in Paris and Rome, he settled in the French capital in 1781. Although being named Premier Peintre du Roi to King Gustaf III in 1783/4 (see the carte de visite sold with the present lot; see fig. 1) and having been commissioned to paint a monumental Portrait of Marie Antoinette and her Children (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm), the artist found commissions somewhat scarce, so moved first to Bordeaux, then Madrid, and finally Cadiz. In March 1794, he boarded the Swedish brig Aurore and landed at Philadelphia. There he rented rooms from Mrs. David Henderson, the daughter of the Swedish émigré painter Gustaf Hesselius, and integrated himself into that city?s artistic and Swedish communities. He painted a celebrated portrait of George Washington, which he replicated (see for example, the signed and dated 1795 canvas, Metropolitan Museum, New York, inv. 24.109.82) as well as exhibited other works. It seems at this time he became attached to his landlady?s daughter ?Betsey? Henderson (circa 1762-1812), and despite a trip to settle business affairs in Paris in 1797, he returned in November 1800 to marry her a few months later. These two oval panels are of a size and format that was favored by the artist in a number of portraits of his family and intimates from the mid-1790?s onwards.1 A Portrait of Mrs. John Hesselius, Betsey?s aunt, is dated 1796 and painted on panel of the same dimensions and shape (Baltimore Museum of Art, BMA 1979.167). A number of these portraits descended in the family of Amos Slaymaker (1755-1837) who was the executor of the Wertmüller estate, and were still with his descendants in the middle of the last century. These included a presumed portrait of the artist?s mother-in-law, as well as a younger Self Portrait of 1796, which in a photograph of circa 1946 still retained the same style frame as the one still on the present portrait of the artist?s wife (see fig. 1).2 Another dated portrait of 1795 of this type depicts Betsey, younger and in more girlish dress befitting an unmarried woman, is in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. By far the closest comparison for the present Self Portrait is another example, painted in 1799 while Wertmuller was in Sweden, which is now in the Konstakademien, Stockholm; that painting is of the same format and size, with only a slight variation in his dress and hairstyle.3 1 Although there is a Portrait of Washington of this type recorded. 2 For a number of images and a discussion of some of these portraits, please see M. N. Benisovich, ?Portraits de la famille Wertmüller aux États-Unis,? Konsthistorisk tidskrift, no. 1/2. 1953, pp. 11-17. 3 See A. Gauffin, Svenska Konstnärsgestalter, Stockholm, 1944, illus., opposite p. 108.

inscribed on an old label 'adolf ulrik wertmuller 1751-18..' verso born in stockholm, wertmuller worked in paris from 1772-1788 where he became official painter to marie antoinette. he later returned to stockholm where he became painter to the king of sweden. he left sweden for america in 1797 where he died in wilmington, delaware in 1811. place bid or track lot