The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of January 28, 2023

Jeremiah Belknap

c. 1758

Joseph Badger

(American, 1708–1765)

America, 18th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 121.9 x 97.2 x 7.6 cm (48 x 38 1/4 x 3 in.); Unframed: 107 x 84 cm (42 1/8 x 33 1/16 in.)

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1919.1016

Location

204 Colonial American

Fun Fact

Badger was also a glazier, a tradesman who fits glass into doors and windows.

Description

Lacking formal training, Badger got his start painting houses and signs in Boston, then shifted his focus to accommodate the increasing market for portraits in the colonies. Jeremiah Belknap is shown here at about 7 years old, but his attire gives him the appearance of a miniature adult. The artist’s portraits of children often include fruit and animals—the ripening peach in Belknap’s right hand suggests maturation, while the dog at his feet symbolizes loyalty.

Provenance
Elrich Galleries, New York 1919
Citations
"Accessions." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art 6, no. 5 (1919): 97-98. Mentioned: p.97 www.jstor.org
L. P. "Portrait of Jeremiah Belknap by Joseph Badger." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art 6, no. 7/8 (1919): 123-25. Reproduced: Front Matter; Mentioned: pp.123-125 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
Park, Lawrence. "Joseph Badger of Boston, and His Portraits of Children." Old-Time New England 13, no.3 (January 1923). Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston, MA. Mentioned: pp.103-105
Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute. Exhibition of Early American Portraits. Exh. Cat. 1925. Mentioned: Cat. No.1
Bayley, Frank W. Five Colonial Artists of New England: Joseph Badger, Joseph Blackburn, John Singleton Copley, Robert Feke, John Smibert. Boston, MA: Privately Printed, 1929. Reproduced: p.27 (as "John Joy, Jr.")
The 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, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1936. Mentioned: p.20
University of Minnesota. Survey of Colonial and Provincial Painting. [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1939. Mentioned: p.36; Reproduced: p.12
Barker, Virgil. American Painting, History and Interpretation. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company, 1950. Mentioned: p.124
The Society of the Four Arts. From Plymouth Rock to the Armory. Exh. Cat. Palm Beach, FL: The Society of the Four Arts, 1950. Mentioned: Ca. No.1
Larkin, Oliver W. Art and Life in America. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960. Mentioned: p.52; Reproduced: p.50
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and Forrest Selvig. Four Centuries of American Art. Minneapolis, MN: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1963. Mentioned: p.31
Nylander, Richard C. "Joseph Badger, American Portrait Painter." MA Thesis, State University of New York College at Oneonta at its Cooperstown Graduate Programs, 1972. Mentioned: p.50
The Cleveland Museum of Art. "A Check List: 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 60, no.1 (January 1973). Mentioned: p.22 www.jstor.org
Cleveland Museum of Art, and Alan Chong. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Mentioned and reproduced: p.6
Exhibition history

Pittsburgh, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Exhibition of Early American Portraits (20 January-8 March 1925), cat. no. 1.

Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition (26 June-4 October 1936), cat. no. 18.

Minneapolis, University Gallery, University of Minnesota, Survey of Colonial and Provincial Painting (1 February-1 March 1939), cat. no. 2, illus. p. 12.

Palm Beach, FL, The Society of the Four Arts, From Plymouth Rock to the Armory (9 February-5 March 1950), cat. no. 1.

Akron, OH, Akron Art Institute, Survey of 19th Century American Paintings (2 November-15 December 1959).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 12, 1936).

Four Centuries of American Art. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN (organizer) (co-organizer) (November 27, 1963-January 19, 1964).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1919.1016