The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Hannah Wentworth Atkinson

1760

Joseph Blackburn

(British, c. 1730–1787)
America
oil on canvas
Unframed: 124.7 x 99.3 cm (49 1/8 x 39 1/8 in.)
Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1919.1005
Location: Not on view

Description

Posed bolt upright in a billowing satin gown, Hannah Wentworth Atkinson is almost a mannequin for the display of opulent textiles. As the sister of the first royal governor of New Hampshire and the wife of that colony's chief justice and richest man, she was as close to an aristocrat as any person in colonial America. She and her husband found a suitable portrait painter in Joseph Blackburn, who was probably born and trained in England, and was thus familiar with fashionable tastes.
  • family of the sitter (1919); [Frank Bayley, Boston].
  • "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 6, no. 5 (1919): 97-98. Mentioned: p. 97 www.jstor.org
    Park, Lawrence. "Report on the Department of Colonial Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 6, no. 7/8 (1919): 130-31. Mentioned: p.130 www.jstor.org
    L. P. "Two Portraits by Joseph Blackburn." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 6, no. 9 (1919): 139-47. Reproduced: p. 138; Mentioned: pp. 139-140 www.jstor.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition: June Twenty-Sixth to October Fourth 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: [Cleveland Museum of Art], 1936. p. 21; cat nbr 19; not reproduced
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 524 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 155 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 155 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 197 archive.org
  • Juxtapositions. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland (September 10–October 10, 1965).
    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).
  • {{cite web|title=Hannah Wentworth Atkinson|url=false|author=Joseph Blackburn|year=1760|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1919.1005