James Pitts

1757

Joseph Jonathan Blackburn American, 1700-1780

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

Image Only Image + Details All Images High Resolution TIFF Metadata

About the Artwork

Please note: This section is empty
Markings

Please note: This section is empty

This section contains information about signatures, inscriptions and/or markings an object may have.
Provenance

Please note: This section is empty

Provenance is a record of an object's ownership. We are continually researching and updating this information to show a more accurate record and to ensure that this object was ethically and legally obtained.

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Published References

Please note: This section is empty

We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Catalogue Raisonné

Please note: This section is empty

A catalogue raisonné is an annotated listing of artworks created by an artist across different media.
Credit Line for Reproduction

Please note: This section is empty

The credit line includes information about the object, such as the artist, title, date, and medium. Also listed is its ownership, the manner in which it was acquired, and its accession number. This information must be cited alongside the object whenever it is shown or reproduced.

About the Artwork

Title James Pitts

Artwork Date 1757

Artist Joseph Jonathan Blackburn

Life Dates 1700-1780

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 50 1/8 × 40 inches (127.3 × 101.6 cm) Framed: 57 3/4 × 47 5/8 × 3 inches (146.7 × 121 × 7.6 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 58.357

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, lower right: J. Blackburn Pinxt 1757

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

until 1776, the sitter, James Pitts (Boston, Massachusetts, USA)

his son, John Pitts (Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, USA)

his great-grandnephew, Thomas Pitts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Mrs. Thomas Pitts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

her son, S. Lendall Pitts [1875-1938] (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Mrs. S. Lendall Pitts [1880-1963] (Norfolk, Virginia, USA)

1958-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

Suggest Feedback

Published References

Goodwin, D. Provincial Pictures by Brush and Pen. Chicago, 1886, pp. 14-16 and 25-59.

Pilgrim Tercentenary Exhibition. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1921, no. 2. [as Elizabeth Bowdoin]

Park, Lawrence. “Joseph Blackburn: A Colonial Portrait Painter with a Descriptive List of his Works.” American Antiquarian Society Proceedings 32 (October 1922): pp. 311-312.

A Loan Exhibition of American Colonial and Early Federal Art. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1930, no. 72.

Richardson, Edgar P. “American Portrait Painting.” Bulletin of the DIA 14, 1 (October 1934): p. 12.

Baker, C.H. Collins. “Notes on Joseph Blackburn and Nathaniel Dance.” Huntington Library Quarterly 9 (November 1945-August 1946): p. 41.

Eight Generations of the Pitts Family. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1959, p. 22 (ill.).

Payne, Elizabeth H. “Pitts Family Portraits of the Eighteenth Century.” Antiques 77 (January 1960): p. 88.

Stevens, William B. Jr. “Joseph Blackburn and his Newport Sitters, 1754-1756.” Newport History 40 (Summer 1967): pp. 105-106.

Shaw, Nancy Rivard, et al. American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Volume 1: Works by Artists Born Before 1816. New York, 1991, pp. 40-43 (ill.).

Kindly share your feedback or any additional information, as this record is still a work in progress and may need further refinement.

Suggest Feedback