Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2011.

Moses Myers

Artist Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755-1828)

CultureAmerican

Dateca. 1808

MediumOil on poplar

DimensionsOverall: 33 1/4 x 26 1/4 in. (84.5 x 66.7 cm)

Credit LineMoses Myers House, Norfolk, Virginia. The Historic Houses are the property of the City of Norfolk and are operated by The Chrysler Museum.

Object numberM51.1.269

Collections

American Art before 1945

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, MMH, Drawing Room

ProvenanceMoses Myers commissioned Gilbert Stuart to paint pendant portraits of himself and his wife, Eliza Judah Myers. These portraits were probably among the "5 Family pictures" listed in the Drawing Room when the house was inventoried in 1820. The portraits descended in the family until 1931; The Colonial House Corporation purchased the property and the contents to preserve the house as a historic landmark, 1931; The Colonial House Corporation deeded the property and contents to the City of Norfolk, 1951; The City of Norfolk transferred the ownership of the contents of the house to the Chrysler Museum of Art, 1997. Exhibition HistoryDrawing Room, Myers House, 1820 - present. "A Tricentennial Celebration: Norfolk 1682-1982," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, Jan. 23 - July 18, 1982. Exh. cat. fig. 75. "Facing the New World: Jewish Portraits in Colonial and Federal America," The Jewish Museum, New York, Sept. 21, 1997 - Jan. 11, 1998. Exh. cat. fig. 69. Published ReferencesGeorge C. Mason, _The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart_ (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1879), 223. Listed as Mr. and Mrs. Mieres. Lawrence Park, _Gilbert Stuart: An Illustrated Descriptive List of his Works, Vol. II_ (New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1926), 545, no. 572-573. "The Myers House," _Norfolk Museum Bulletin_ Vol. 5, no. 1 (October 1951): 1-3. Harry Simonhoff, with foreword by Dr. David de Sola Pool, _Jewish Notables in America, 1776-1865: Links of an Endless Chain_ (New York: Greenberg Publisher, 1956), 133. _Handbook of the Myers House, 1792, Norfolk, Virginia_, The Norfolk Museum, 1960, n.p. Hannah R. London, _Portraits of Jews by Gilbert Stuart and Other Early American Artists_ (New York, W.E. Rudge, 1927; reprint Charles E. Tuttle Company, Rutland, VT, 1969), 50-53, 163-164. Betsy L. Fahlman, et al., _A Tricentennial Celebration: Norfolk 1682-1982_ (Norfolk, VA: The Chrysler Museum, 1982), 77-78, Fig. 75. _The Chrysler Museum: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Norfolk, Virginia_, (Norfolk: Chrysler Museum, 1982), 161. Richard Brilliant, _Facing the New World: Jewish Portraits in Colonial and Federal America_, exh. cat., The Jewish Museum, New York, 1997, 82-84, fig. 69. Melvin I. Urofsky, _Commonwealth and Community: The Jewish Experience in Virginia_ (Richmond, VA: Virginia Historical Society, 1997), 14-15, 16. "Myers Portraits Return Home," _The Chrysler Bulletin_ (April 1998): 3. Frederick C. Leiner, _Millions for Defense: The Subscription Warships of 1798_ (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2000), b/w 52-53, in the illustrated section. Norfolk Convention & Visitors Bureau, _Cannonball Trail: 400 Years of Building and Defending This Nation_ (Norfolk, VA: City of Norfolk and Norfolk Convention & Visitors Bureau, 2000), 26-27. Mary Miley Theobald, "Virginia's Early Jews: Just Passing Through," _The Journal of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation_ Vol. XXII, No. 3 (August 2000): 39-43. Joe Mosier, "The Reluctant Midshipman: The Journeys of Henry Myers," _The Daybook_ 8, issue 3 (12/2002): 6-9, 14-15. Catherine Soussloff, "Portraiture and Assimilation in Vienna: The Case of Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat," _Diasporas and Exiles: Varieties of Jewish Identity_ edited by Howard Wettstein (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 115, 118-119. ISBN: 0-520-22864-2 Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 28-29, no. 7. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6 Catherine M. Soussloff, _The Subject in Art: Portraiture and the Birth of the Modern_ (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006), 73, 76 & 77, plate 20 & 21 ISBN: 978-0822336709 Paul Clancy, _Historic Hampton Roads: Where America Began_ (San Antonio, TX: Historical Publishing Network, 2006), 34 & 78. ISBN: 9781893619654 Paul R. Clancy, _Hampton Roads Chronicles: History from the Birthplace of America_ (Charleston: The History Press, 2009), 28. Bland Simpson, _Two Captains From Carolina: Moses Grandy, John Newland Maffitt, and the Coming of the Civil War_ (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2012) 13.