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HEAD OF A JEW

measurements
30 by 25 in.

alternate measurements
(76.2 by 63.5 cm)

oil on canvas

Painted in 1817.

PROVENANCE

Boston Athenaeum, Massachusetts, 1829 (acquired directly from the artist)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, 1876 (transfer from the above)
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1976 (acquired from the above)
Acquired by the present owners from the above, 1984

EXHIBITED

Boston, Massachusetts, Boston Athenaeum, Exhibition, 1828, no. 146 (or no. 148 or 171)
Boston, Massachuetts, Harding's Gallery, Exhibition of Pictures Painted by Washington Allston, 1839, no. 20, p. 5 (as Sketch of a Polish Jew)
(possibly) New York, Apollo Association, March Exhibition, 1841, no. 55 (as Portrait of a Polish Jew, a sketch)
Boston, Massachusetts, Boston Athenaeum, Exhibition, 1850, no. 75
Boston, Massachusetts, Boston Athenaeum; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Exhibition of the Works of Washington Allston, 1881, no. 221, p. 13 (as Sketch of a Polish Jew)
Coral Gables, Florida, University of Miami, Lowe Art Museum, The Paintings of Washington Allston, 1975, no. 15, pp. 23, 38, illustrated
New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, The American Experience, 1976, no. 16, illustrated
Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, A Man of Genius: The Art of Washington Allston (1779-1843), December 1979-April 1980, no. 45, p. 193, illustrated
New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, American Art from the Colonial and Federal Periods, 1982, no. 33, p. 46, illustrated

LITERATURE

"Received of...the Boston Athenaeum One Hundred Dollars for the Study from the Jew's head...," Records of Washington Allston, Boston Athenaeum Archives, December 10, 1829
Treasurer's Report, Boston Athenaeum, December 30, 1829
Josiah Quincy, "Minutes," Trustee's Records, Annual Report, Boston Athenaeum, January 4, 1830, p. 209 (as one of the "Jew's heads")
"Report, Committee on Fine Arts," Boston Athenaeum Archives, January 4, 1830 (acknowledges purchase of Head of Jew)
Sarah Clarke, "Our First Great Painter and His Works," Atlantic Monthly, XV, February 1865, p. 136
"Trustee's Record," Boston Athenaeum, 1865 (as lent to Albert Bierstadt for exhibition in Buffalo; no record can be found that this exhibition was actually held)
Moses F. Sweetser, "Washington Allston," Artist's Biographies, vol. 5, Boston, circa 1877-78, p. 187
Mabel Munson Swan, The Athenaeum Gallery 1827-1873, Boston, 1940, pp. 17 or 60 (as either Head of a Jew or Sketch of a Jew)
Edgar Preston Richardson, Washington Allston, A Study of the Romantic Artist in America, Chicago, 1948, no. 95, p. 201
American Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, vol. I, Boston, 1969, no. 60, p. 13