Oil on canvas, c. 1800. Half-length portrait of the young Tupper wearing civilian clothing. In a period/original frame. 24.5" high, 19.5" wide (sight); 28" high, 23" wide (overall). There are several notations on the back, including an ownership inscription by Rowena Buell (1870-1960) of Marietta, Ohio, and a note that the painting was cleaned, lined, and revarnished in 1929. During that restoration, the back of the new canvas was inscribed, ?The Inscription on the back of the original canvas is: GEN. E.W. TURPEN by G. STUART attributed to Jeremiah Paul?? and then it becomes illegible. Simply put, we can find no General E.W. Turpen (or Turpin) in the documentary record. However, if that last name were not clearly written, ?Turpen? may have been a misreading of ?Tupper.? General Edward White Tupper (1771-1824) was the son of General Benjamin Tupper (1738-1792), one of the founders of the Ohio Company of Associates. All of Benjamin?s sons were in the military, Edward rising to the rank of general, and serving during the War of 1812 and participating in an attempted arrest of Harman Blennerhassett for being part of the Aaron Burr plot. In The Tercentenary Dedicatory Volume of the Tupper Family Association of American (1939), a Stuart portrait of Edward is referenced via a photograph of it owned by Minerva Tupper Nye of Marietta. Tupper?s brother-in-law, Winthrop Sargent (1753-1820) sat for Gilbert Stuart (that portrait is currently in the collection of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the State Department), so through that family connection is likely how Edward sat for Stuart. The location of the original Stuart of Tupper portrait is unknown. While it does seem that this portrait is an early (nearly contemporary) copy of the Stuart portrait, it has not been confirmed that the copyist was Jeremiah Paul (1771-1820). Presumably, Tupper sat for Stuart in his Philadelphia gallery about 1800 or so. During this time, Paul was in Philadelphia, and is known to have associated with Stuart, so Paul copying a Stuart portrait is certainly a good possibility.While we don?t know the specifics of how this period copy of the Stuart portrait entered and descended in the Tupper family, it seems to have descended through Edward?s Minerva Tupper (1768-1836) to her great granddaughter, Rowena Buell, who is likely the one who had the painting restored in 1929. Lined, some repairs and inpaining, craquelure, and some losses.
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