Daniel Webster (1782-1852)

After 1830

Oil on canvas

Overall: 60 in. × 47 3/4 in. (152.4 × 121.3 cm)

Gift of Mary L. Delafield, Maturin L. Delafield, Rita D. Kip, Edward C. Delafield, Jr., and Mary D. Kramer

1953.24

Harding was in Washington, D.C., in 1830, painting a portrait of John C. Calhoun, when he witnessed the celebrated Hayne-Webster debate in the Senate. He had just finished his portrait of Chief Justice John Marshall for the Boston Athenaeum when that institution commissioned him to paint a full-length portrait of Webster. This was done and the next year the portrait was shown at the annual exhibition of the Athenaeum. The Society's three-quarter-length portrait is a replica of that original.

MarkingsLabel: Pasted on the back of the picture frame: "Portrait of Daniel Webster given to General Robert F. Stockton by him; left by him to his wife who left it to M. Taylor Pyne, who just before his death gave it to Margaretta S. Delafield. Portrait owned by Jonce I. Mc Gurk of 227 Riverside Drive, New York City, in August 1923, who states that it is the best example of Chester Harding's work in existence; that he would appraise it at worth $3,000, and that there are twenty-two original portraits of Webster known, eleven of them are now held by museums."

ClassificationsPAINTINGS