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John Smibert , American, 1688-1751

Title

The Bermuda Group

Datec.1730

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

61 x 70 cm

Credit LinePurchased, 1897

Object numberNGI.465

DescriptionThe philosopher George Berkeley (1685-1753) was appointed Dean of Derry in 1724, and the following year published a proposal to establish a college on the island of Bermuda. He left Ireland with his wife and spent the years 1728-31 at Newport, Rhode Island, awaiting government funding, before returning. This small group portrait shows Berkeley (right); Smibert (left); Anne Berkeley with their newly born son, Henry; her companion, Miss Handcock; and John Wainwright, a patron of the Dean, all seated at a table covered with a costly Turkish carpet of a medallion and split-leaf border pattern. The standing men are Richard Dalton and John James, who were also part of this circle.

Smibert was born in Scotland but spent most of his career in North America. Berkeley had offered him the post of Professor of Architecture at his proposed college, a fact perhaps alluded to by his scroll. He settled in Boston in 1729 and quickly became the city's leading portraitist. There is a lager version of this picture at Yale University, which was previously exhibited in his studio.

(National Gallery of Ireland: Essential Guide, 2008)
ProvenanceThe Artist; his wife, Mary Smibert by 1751; by descent to her son, William Smibert, Boston, c. 1760; his cousin Dr Thomas Moffatt, New London, Connecticut, 1769 (taken with him to London in 1776); bequeathed to George Chalmers, 5 August 1786; purchased, Mr J. Mossop, London, 1897 Exhibition HistoryAmerican Professional, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 1950

Berkeley Bicentenary, Trinity College, Dublin, 1953

The Conversation Piece in Georgian England, The Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, London, 1965

Swift and His Age, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1967

Artist's Face to Face, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 30 June - 14 October 2012