John Burgwin (1731–1803)

Artist John Singleton Copley American, 1738–1815, active in Great Britain 1774–1815

Date1783

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions30 1/4 x 25 in. (76.8 x 63.5 cm)
Frame: 37 1/2 x 32 1/2 x 2 3/4 in. (95.3 x 82.6 x 7 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift in memory of Judge W. H. Sumner Burgwyn and his wife Josephine Griffin Burgwyn by their children and grandchildren

Object number2005.14

On View

On view

Provenance**Commissioned by the sitter, London, 1783; created London, 1783; John Burgwin; to son John Fanning Burgwyn (1783–1864), New Bern, NC; to son Henry King Burgwyn (1811–1877), Northampton County, NC; to son William Hyslop Sumner Burgwyn (1845–1913), Weldon, NC; bequeathed to wife Margaret Dunlop Burgwyn, 1913; bequeathed to nephew William Hyslop Sumner Burgwyn II, (1886–1977), Woodland, NC, 1941; given to children John Griffin Burgwyn, Jackson, NC; William H. S. Burgwyn Jr., Woodland, NC; Margaret Burgwyn Cooley, Jackson, NC; and Henry King Burgwyn, Murfreesboro, NC, 1960s[?]; half-interest sold to Kennedy Galleries, New York, 1969; [Kennedy Galleries, 1969–2005]; Kennedy Galleries half-interest acquired by James D. and Josephine Burgwyn Pratt (son-in-law and daughter of John Griffin Burgwyn), Asheville, NC, 2005; given to NCMA, 2005.Published ReferencesAugustus Thorndike Perkins, A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley (Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1873), listed in supplement pp. 1-2 (identified as "Hon. John Burguyn").

Annual Report of the Secretary of the North Carolina Historical Commission, December 14, 1915, notes receipt of loan.

Typescript, NC State Archives.Sixth Biennial Report of the North Carolina Historical Commission (Raleigh: N.C. Historical Commission, December 1, 1914-November 30, 1916), listed in "Oil portraits of…North Carolinians…added to the portrait gallery in the Eastern Hall," p. 18 (as lent by Mrs. W. H. S. Burgwyn).

Marshall De Lancey Haywood, "John Burgwin," in Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present, Samuel A. Ashe, et al, eds. (Greensboro: C. L. Van Noppen, 1917), vol. 8, 58-66, mentioned (as dated in 1786) 66, illus. (engraving by E. G. Williams & Bro., NY), opposite 58.

Walter Burgwyn Jones, John Burgwin: Carolinian; John Jones, Virginian: Their Ancestors and Descendants (Privately printed, 1913), illus. (b-w).

Frank W. Bayley, The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley (Boston: Taylor Press, 1915), 70 (identified as "John Burguyn").

Carolina Charter Tercentenary Exhibition (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1983), no. 11, illus. (b-w).

Laura MacMillan, comp., The North Carolina Portrait Index, 1700-1860 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963), 39, illus. (b-w) (identified as "John Burgwin," owned by John Griffin Burgwyn, Jackson, NC).

Lower Cape Fear Historical Society Bulletin 7 (October 1963), 5, illus. (b-w).

Jules David Prown, John Singleton Copley (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966), vol. 2, 320, listed 413-414 (identified as "John Burgwyn"), illus. (b-w) fig. 486.

Henry J. MacMillan, "Colonial Plantations of the Lower Cape Fear," Lower Cape Fear Historical Society Bulletin 12 (February 1969), 1, 3-6, mentioned 6.

"Two Hundred Years of American Portraits," The Kennedy Quarterly 9 (May 1970), no. 239 (in private collection), illus. (b-w) 237.

Apollo 94 (December 1971), illus. (color) 39 (identified as "John Burgwyn").

Connoisseur 178 (December 1971), illus. (color), 63 (identified as "John Burgwyn").

The Wilmington Town Book, 1743-1778, Donald R. Lennon and Ida Brooks Kellan, eds. (Raleigh: NC Division of Archives and History, 1973), illus. (b-w) 158.

H. G. Jones, "Burgwin Portrait Will Hang in N.Y. Gallery," The Durham Sun (February 2, 1977).

Margaret T. Hall, "The Burgwin-Wright House," Lower Cape Fear Historical Society Bulletin 22 (February 1979), 1-4, mentioned 2 (as painted in 1778, citing Clitheral Diary).

James Robert Warren, "History in Towns: Wilmington, North Carolina," The Magazine Antiques 118 (December 1980), 1251-1266, noted 1251, illus. (b-w) 1252.

Archie K. Davis, The Boy Colonel: The Life and Times of Henry King (Harry) Burgwyn, Jr., vol. 1 (Chapel Hill, 1982), discussed 96, n.59 (misdated), illus. (b-w) 95.

Alan D. Watson, Society in Colonial North Carolina, rev. ed. (Raleigh: Office of Archives and History, Department of Cultural Resources, 2002), illus. (b-w) front cover.

Craig Jarvis, "Errant portrait finds a home in N.C. museum," Raleigh: The News and Observer (May 5, 2006), discussed 1A, 18A, illus. (color) 18A.

[John W. Coffey], "Museum Receives Copley Portrait," Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (July/August 2006), discussed and illus. (color) 9.

"Museum accessions," in Antiques 170 (November 2006), discussed 42 and 44, illus. 44.
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, Hall of History [later North Carolina Museum of History], 1915-1969.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Carolina Charter Tercentenary Exhibition," March 23-April 28, 1963, no. 11 (as John Burgwyn of "The Hermitage"), illus. (b-w).

New York, NY, Kennedy Galleries, "American Masters: 18th and 19th Centuries," March 22-April 8, 1972, no. 2, illus. (color).

New York, NY, Kennedy Galleries, "Age of the Revolution and Early Republic in Fine and Decorative Arts: 1750-1824," January 14-February 12, 1977, no. 6, illus.

New York, NY, Kennedy Galleries, "The American View: Art from 1770-1978," December 6, 1978-January 6, 1979, no. 3, illus. (color).

New York, NY, Kennedy Galleries, "The American Tradition, Part 1: Paintings of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," November 23, 1982-January 14, 1983, no. 3, illus. (color).

Bellevue WA, Bellevue Arts Museum, "Five Thousand Years of Faces," January 30-July 30, 1983, unnumbered entry in catalogue.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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