Read the visual description
The image depicts a man's upper body. He is facing slightly to the right and has an oval face with fair skin. His facial features include evenly spaced eyes, a straight nose, and closed lips. He has brown, medium-length hair that is parted in the middle. He is dressed in historical attire, wearing a dark coat over a high-collared white shirt with an intricate ruffled design at the neck. There are no visible jewelry or objects in his hands. The background is a warm golden-brown color, encircled by a darker border.
National Gallery of Art · Painting
Asa Benjamin
William Jennys
- Date
- 1795
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- overall: 76.2 x 63.5 cm (30 x 25 in.) framed: 81.9 x 69.5 x 3.8 cm (32 1/4 x 27 3/8 x 1 1/2 in.)
- Classification
- Painting
- Accession number
- 1953.5.19
- Credit line
- Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch
- Time span
- 1776 to 1800
- Department
- CAB
Subjects and terms
- painted surface
- American
- male
- portrait
- American Naive Paintings
- Naive
- Benjamin, Asa
Provenance
The sitter [1763-1833], Stratford, Connecticut; by descent in his family to Hannah Maria Benjamin Russell [1809-1894, Mrs. Lewis H. Russell], Stratford;[1] by descent to her granddaughter, Frances B. Russell, Stratford, by 1941.[2] (Mr. Aarons, Ansonia, Connecticut); sold 1952 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch (perhaps with Frederick Fuessenich as agent); gift 1953 to NGA. [1] Robyn Asleson, curator at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery, kindly brought to the NGA's attention the inclusion of this painting, as well as NGA 1953.5.20 and 1953.5.21, in an 1889 exhibition in Stratford (see her e-mail of 17 August 2020 to NGA curator Sarah Cash, in NGA curatorial files). The paintings were lent by Hannah M.B. Russell, indicating they had remained in the sitters' family, information that was not known when the NGA catalogue of its naïve American paintings was published in 1992. [2] Frederic F. Sherman, in _Richard Jennys, New England Portrait Painter_, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1941: 64, reproduces this painting with the credit line, "Property of Miss Frances B. Russell." On p. 65, Sherman notes that he found the painting in Stratford, Connecticut, presumably where Miss Russell lived.
Inscription
on original stretcher: Asa Benjamin May 1st 1795 Age 31
NGA object ID 42422. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.