Portrait of Chief Justice John Marshall, circa 1832
Note: The subject was traditionally identified in the Marshall Family Collection. Fred R. Kline first identified this portrait as the original Hubard oil study, made from life.

Oil on paper sheet(approx. 1/16 in. thick)laid down on cradled wood panel
Size: 20 7/8 x 14 ¾ in. / 52.5 x 37.5 cm. / 525 x 375 mm.
No signature or inscriptions noted

Consulting Scholar: Dr. Ellen Miles, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

Provenance

Estate of Chief Justice John Marshall (1755-1835)

to son John Marshall (1798-1833): farmer, Fauquier County, VA

to grandson John Marshall (b.1830-?): Marshall, VA;
developer Manassas Gap Railroad

to Norman Fitzhugh Marshall (1858-1953): Episcopalian minister in Virginia & New Mexico Territory (Carlsbad, 1904-14) & lastly at Harper's Ferry, VA

to John Marshall (1888-1949): American Chemist, Dupont Corporation; Dupont's John Marshall Laboratory named after him; first graduating class of University of New Mexico

to John Marshall Jr. (1917-1997): American Physicist; worked with Enrico Fermi to build first nuclear reactors; developed techniques in controlled nuclear fusion at Los Alamos National Laboratory 1957-97

to John Marshall III (b.1949; current owner 2001): American Physicist & Engineer; developing applications in Vacuum Plasma Science

Related paintings
According to Andrew Oliver (The Portraits of John Marshall, University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1977), records show that Hubard painted nine portraits of Marshall, seven of which had been located by 1977. All replicate the recently discovered oil on paper Portrait of Chief Justice John Marshall (Marshall Family Collection), the presumed original study herein described. The MFC oil study depicts the same portrait likeness and the same general composition of those known—five of which are full-length seated figures, and three of bust length. The MFC oil study depicts at right, beyond the curtain, a landscape containing a Neoclassical building, possibly the Supreme Court. All are oil on canvas and all but one are approximately the same size as the MFC oil study.

As of 1977, the extant Hubard portraits of John Marshall are in the collections of: National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; John Marshall House, Richmond, VA (2); University of Virginia, Charlottesville; Virginia Historical Society, Richmond; and (presumably) Private Collections (2).

Condition
Good, conserved: the picture has received recent light cleaning and moderate conservation . The bust of the head was very carefully and lightly cleaned and it is in excellent condition. The laid-down sheet is intact and stable; minor losses around the edges and elsewhere have been corrected. (report on request)

Opinion
Judging from the paper support, the fine sharp realistic quality of the portrait bust, and the Marshall Family Collection provenance, this oil on paper portrait is in all probability the original William James Hubard study made from life of United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. Seven oil on canvas replica portraits of Marshall by Hubard, all plausibly derived from this Marshall Family oil study, have been located. The present original oil study is the eighth now located; however, it is now considered the truest likeness by Hubard and of singular historic importance.

Fred R. Kline
Fred R. Kline Gallery & Kline Art Research Associates
Santa Fe, New Mexico / December 2001