COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
Record
AMICA ID:
CMA_.1919.1006
AMICA Library Year:
2002
Object Type:
Paintings
Creator Name:
Feke, Robert
Creator Nationality:
North American; American
Creator Role:
artist
Creator Dates/Places:
c. 1707 - 1752
Gender:
M
Creator Name-CRT:
Robert Feke
Title:
Charles Apthorp
Title Type:
Primary
View:
Full View
Creation Date:
1748
Creation Start Date:
1748
Creation End Date:
1748
Materials and Techniques:
oil on canvas
Classification Term:
Painting
Dimensions:
Unframed: 127cm x 101.5cm
AMICA Contributor:
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location:
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number:
1919.1006
Credit Line:
Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
Inscriptions:
signed lower right R F P / 174[8]
Provenance:
family of the sitter, to Sarah Clinch Bond, New York (1914). The Brook Club, New York.
Context:
Called "the greatest merchant on this continent" in his obituary, the London-born and Boston-based Charles Apthorp (1698-1758) helped transform his adopted city into one of the key commercial centers in the American colonies. When the fashionable painter Feke came to town, Apthorp not only commissioned this likeness of himself, but also portraits of his wife and daughter. Richly dressed and confidently posed, Apthrop is the very image of stable wealth and prominent social position. The unfolded letter on the table and distant sailing ship symbolize the dynamic exchange of credit and goods by which he earned his wealth.
Related Image Identifier Link:
CMA_.AM20020200.tif
