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Sep 15, 2016

Nov 13, 2009

Sep 15, 2016

Aug 13, 2008

Dec 8, 2009

Sep 15, 2016

Elizabeth Beltzhoover Mason

c. 1803–5

Gilbert Stuart

(American, 1755–1828)

America, 19th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 90 x 78 x 8 cm (35 7/16 x 30 11/16 x 3 1/8 in.); Unframed: 73.8 x 61 cm (29 1/16 x 24 in.)

Gift from J. H. Wade 1921.428

Location

204 Colonial American

Did you know?

Stuart also painted a portrait of George Washington, now immortalized on the dollar bill.

Description

Stuart introduced into American art a painting technique based on spontaneous, yet strategically placed brushstrokes and layers of subtle, translucent paint that presents sitters as if bathed in mist. Commissioned five years after her marriage, this painting of Elizabeth Beltzhoover Mason (1781–1836) declares her stylishness by associating her with Stuart's fashionable manner. The portrait adapts to a small format the accessories of column and drapery traditionally associated with larger paintings, creating an effect of both intimacy and grandeur.

Video

Provenance

1921-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

1921

(Frank W. Bayley, Boston, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1899-1921

Louisa Mason Terry [1844-1921], Washington, DC, consigned to Frank W. Bayley for sale1 ¹

1873-1899

Margaret Augusta Cowan Mason [1821-1899], Hagerstown, MD, by descent to her daughter, Louisa Mason Terry1 ²

1836-1873

Judge John Thomson Mason, Jr. [1815-1873], Hagerstown, MD, by descent to his wife, Margaret Augusta Cowan Mason

c. 1803/1805 - 1836

Elizabeth Beltzhoover Mason [1781-1836] and John Thomson Mason [1765-1824], Montpelier, Clear Spring, MD, by descent to their son, Judge John Thomson Mason, Jr.

Provenance Footnotes

¹Sometimes referred to as Louise, Louisa Terry was married to Rear Admiral Silas Wright Terry [c. 1841-1911]. From 1909 until 1921, the painting was on loan to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

²1While not generally included in this painting’s provenance, George C. Mason’s The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart, published in 1879, situates the painting in the collection of “Mrs. J. Thompson [sic] Mason” at the time.

Citations

Washington County Museum of Fine Arts. American Painting Before 1865: An Exhibition September 4th to 26th, 1937. Hagerstown, MD: The Museum,

Park, Lawrence, John Hill Morgan, and Royal Cortissoz. Gilbert Stuart; An Illustrated Descriptive List of His Works. New York: W.E. Rudge, 1926.

Washington County Museum of Fine Arts. American Painting Before 1865: An Exhibition September 4th to 26th, 1937. Hagerstown, MD: The Museum, 1937.

Park, Lawrence. “Portrait of Mrs. John Thomson Mason by Gilbert Stuart,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 8, no. 19 (Dec. 1921): 154-155.

Mason, George C. The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1879.

Park, Lawrence, John Hill Morgan, and Royal Cortissoz. Gilbert Stuart; An Illustrated Descriptive List of His Works. New York: W.E. Rudge, 1926.

Washington County Museum of Fine Arts. American Painting Before 1865: An Exhibition September 4th to 26th, 1937. Hagerstown, MD: The Museum, 1937.

Park, Lawrence. “Portrait of Mrs. John Thomson Mason by Gilbert Stuart,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 8, no. 19 (Dec. 1921): 154-155

Park, Lawrence, John Hill Morgan, and Royal Cortissoz. Gilbert Stuart; An Illustrated Descriptive List of His Works. New York: W.E. Rudge, 1926.

Park, Lawrence. “Portrait of Mrs. John Thomson Mason by Gilbert Stuart,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 8, no. 19 (Dec. 1921): 154-15

Mason, George C. The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart: With Selections from Stuart's Portraits Reproduced on Steel and by Photogravure. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894. Mentioned: p. 221

Cleveland Museum of Art. "Portrait of Mrs. John Thomson Mason by Gilbert Stuart." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, no. 10 (December 1921). Mentioned: p. 154-155; Reproduced: p. 163

Cleveland Museum of Art. "Early American Art." The Cleveland Museum of Art Seventh Annual Report (1923). Reproduced: p. 52

Dorr, Charles Henry. "The Real Gilbert Stuart." The Judd Magazines, Inc. 18, no. 1 (November 1922). Mentioned: p. 50; Reproduced: p. 35

Whiting, Frederic Allen. "The Cleveland Museum of Art." Art and Archaeology 16, no. 4-5 (1923). Reproduced: 186

Park, Lawrence, John Hill Morgan, and Royal Cortissoz. Gilbert Stuart: An Illustrated Descriptive List of His Works. New York: W.E. Rudge, 1926.

Cleveland Museum of Art. "In Memoriam: Jeptha Homer Wade." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 13, no. 4 (April 1926). Reproduced: p. 91

Cortissoz, Royal. "The Field of Art." Scribners (November 1926). Reproduced: p. 576

"At the Art Museum." Bystander (Cleveland, OH), 1931. Mentioned; Reproduced

Medford, Richard Carl. "The Fine Arts Exhibits of the National Antietam Commemoration." Bulletin of the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts 3, no. 1 (September 1937). Mentioned: p. 4; Reproduced: cover

"Finest Art in US Goes to Illinois Corn Belt for Big Small-Town Show." LIFE, March 1939. Reproduced

Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 528 archive.org

Mount, Charles Merrill. Gilbert Stuart, A Biography. New York: W.W. Norton, 1964. Mentioned: p. 371

Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 161 archive.org

Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 161 archive.org

Adams, Celeste, Rita Myers, and Adele Z. Silver. An Introduction to American Art in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1972. Mentioned: p. 3; Reproduced

Cleveland Museum of Art. "A Checklist: American Paintings and Water Colors of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Early Twentieth Centuries in the Cleveland Museum of Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art (January 1973). Reproduced: p. 34

Mount, Charles Merrill. Gilbert Stuart in Washington: With a Catalogue of His Portraits Painted between December 1803 and July 1805. Washington, D.C.: Columbia Historical Society, 1973. Mentioned: p. 96; Reproduced: p. 98

Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 199 archive.org

Evans, Dorinda. The Genius of Gilbert Stuart. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. Mentioned: p. 76; Reproduced: p. 76

Barratt, Carrie Rebora, Gilbert Stuart, and Ellen Gross Miles. Gilbert Stuart. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004. Mentioned: p. 260, 264-6; Reproduced: p. 265

Adams, Henry. What's American About American Art?: A Gallery Tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008. Mentioned: p. 9; Reproduced: p. 9

|Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art: Picture Book No. 4 . [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952. Reproduced: p. 17 archive.org

Exhibition history

CMA at Oberlin: American Portraits. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin (August 29-December 17, 2006).

American Painting Before 1865. Washington County Museum of Fine Arts (September 4-26, 1927).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951).

Gilbert Stuart. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (October 18, 2004-January 16, 2005); National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (March 27-July 31, 2005).

CMA @ Oberlin - American Portraits. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 29-December 17, 2006).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Elizabeth Beltzhoover Mason|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1921.428|author=Gilbert Stuart|year=c. 1803–5|access-date=26 September 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Elizabeth Beltzhoover Mason

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