Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry

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Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry

Artist Jane Stuart American, 1812-1888

Artist Gilbert Stuart American, 1755-1828

Date1818-1828

DimensionsFrame: 34 × 28 7/8 × 3 1/8 in. (86.4 × 73.3 × 7.9 cm)

MediumOil on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott

Object number

1967.140

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 29

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesMason, G., The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart, New York, 1879, p. 239.

Exhibition of Portraits Painted by Gilbert Stuart, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 2nd ed., 1880, no. 474 (lists an engraving after this portrait).

Smith, J., Civil and Military List of Rhode Island, 1800-1850, Providence, 1901, p. 262.

Mahan, A., Sea Power in Relation to the War of 1812, Boston, 1905, II, repr. opp. p. 66.

Perry Victory Centennial Exposition, Toledo Museum of Art, 1913, no. 1, repr.

Park, L., Gilbert Stuart, New York, 1926, II, pp. 589-590, no. 630, p. 908, IV, repr. p. 387.

Downes, William Howe, "The Gilbert Stuart Exhibition in Boston," The Aermican Magazine of Art, vol. XX, Jan. 1929, p. 16.

Whitley, W., Gilbert Stuart, Cambridge, MA, 1932, p. 165.

Dutton, Charles J., Oliver Hazard Perry, New York and Toronto, 1935, as the frontispiece.

Bolton, B., American Portraits 1670-1825, Found in Massachusetts, Boston, 1939, II, p. 313, no. 1670.

Swan, M., The Athenaeum Gallery, 1827-1873, Boston, 1940, p. 72.

Mount, C., Gilbert Stuart, A Biography, New York, 1964, pp. 307, 373.

"La Chronique des Arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 71, no. 1189, Feb. 1968, p. 73, no. 273, repr.

"Treasures for Toledo," The Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 12, no. 4, Winter 1969, p. 116, repr.

Davidson, Ruth, "Museum Accessions: Toledo's Treasures," Antiques, vol. 97, no. 3, March 1970, p. 353, repr.

Sherrill, Sarah B., "Current and Coming: American Painting, 1776-1976," Antiques, vol. 109, no. 3, March 1976, repr. p. 420.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 75.

Heritage and Horizon: American Painting 1776-1976, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 1976, no. 3, repr.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, pp. 104-105, p. 11.

Meschutt, David, "Gilbert Stuart's Portraits of Thomas Jefferson," American Art Journal, vol. 13, no. 1, Winter 1981, p. 9, repr. fig. 5, p. 7.

Antal, Sandy, A Wampum Denied: Procter's War of 1812, East Lansing, MI, 1997, repr. p. 265.

Historic Americana, Terrace Park, [Cincinnati] OH, Cowan's, Nov. 15-16, 2001, lots 264, 265, pp. 43, 44.

Davis, Caryn B., "Found at Sea: How a Pair of Divers Discovered the Remains of the USS Revenge in the Waters Near Watch Hill," Ocean House Magazine, Sept. 2011, repr. (col.) p. 27.

Ocko, Stephanie, Oliver Hazard Perry in the Temple of Fame, Boston, Riverbank Press, 2012, repr. (col.) p. 89.

Exhibition HistoryBoston Athenaeum, An Exhibition of Portraits Painted by the Late Gilbert Stuart, Esq., 1828, no. 180.

Toledo Museum of Art, Perry Victory Centennial Exposition, 1913.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Gilbert Stuart Memorial Exhibition, 1928, no. 55.

Toledo Museum of Art; Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Detroit Institute of Arts; Cleveland Museum of Art, Heritage and Horizon: American Painting 1776-1976, 1976, no. 3.

Toledo Museum of Art, Perry's Victory: The Battle of Lake Erie, Aug. 9-Nov. 10, 2013.

Label TextIn 1818 the Rhode Island General Assembly commissioned prominent portraitist Gilbert Stuart to paint a full-length portrait of naval officer Oliver Hazard Perry (1785–1819), a native of that state. Perry became a national hero in the War of 1812 after defeating a British squadron near Put-in-Bay, Ohio, in the Battle of Lake Erie. Though the full-length portrait was never carried out, Perry sat for this likeness just before leaving for a mission in the West Indies, where he died of yellow fever on his 34th birthday. Stuart was notorious for leaving paintings unfinished, however, and completed only the head. Years later, Stuart’s 16-year-old daughter Jane completed the sky, body, and uniform of the portrait that her father had left incomplete. She had essentially grown up in her father's studio, helping him with chores like grinding pigments, while absorbing the lessons he gave to his students. This oil painting remains one of the most famous portraits of Perry.