Portrait of John Henry Wright with his Dog Oil on board 31 x 26 1/2 in. 78.7 x 67.3 cm Property of a Maine family

Sotheby's, New York, January 27, 1983, lot 194 (as American School)
Christie's, New York, Important American Furniture, Silver Prints, and Folk Art, October 9, 2002 (as American School)q
To the current owner
The attribution is very strong. For many years, the current lot has been described as American School. It is likely a portrait by Goodell. John Henry Wright and Peter Dwight Wright were the sons of Sara Hubbell and Olney F. Wright. A catalogue of the collection to 1937 of the Whitney Museum of American Art lists portraits of both gentlemen by name on page 24 as companion pieces. An Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian American Art Museums, lists only one portrait as ca. 1840 – both portraits appear to be several years earlier – of Peter Dwight Wright. That portrait and this portrait are the same size and both are painted on tulipwood (tulip poplar). The figure in each appears to be seated in the same location with the column to the right. The Smithsonian catalogue lists the Peter Dwight Wright portait as follows:PAINTER: Goodell, Ira Chaffee 1800-ca. 1875SUBJECT: Wright, Peter DwightMEDIUM: OilTYPE: PaintingsDATE: Ca. 1840TOPIC: Portrait male--ChildCONTROL NUMBER: IAP 35090042NOTES: Piwonka, Ruth, “A catalogue and checklist of portraits done in Columbia County and elsewhere by Ira C. Goodell,”Kinderhook, N.Y.: Columbia County Historical Society, 1979DATA SOURCE:Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian American Art Museums[Ref. http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=record_ID:siris_ari_28325]

Good condition, good appearance., no apparent restoration when examined with a black light