Artist: James Peale (1774-1825)

Title:Portrait of Henry Lunt, Jr., Age 29, Philadelphia 1805 (Born Newburyport, Mass. 1776 - Died?)

Date: 1605

Medium: Watercolor, ink, and graphite on paper; paper embossed J. Parsons Bristol

Dimensions: 5½ x 4½ inches
Signed and Dated at lr: IP 1809

Inscribed at upper right recto: 29 Years of A age [suggesting the artist’s hand]

Fine original condition.

Provenance:
Henry Lunt, Jr.
By descent in the family
Estate of Phyllis Montgomery
Fred R. Kline Gallery, Santa Fe, NM , 2006 (here attributed by FRK to above subject and author)

Transcription of Accompanying Lunt Manuscript Document

Memo 6th October 1852

This was taken at Philadelphia 1805 by a younger Peale when I was 29 years old—Peales Father a celebrated Miniature Painter in the year 1781 in Philadelphia Painted a miniature likeness of my Father at the time my father was about leaving the Continental service under the command of the Chevalier Paul Jones then of the ship Ariel—Peale Painted also a miniature of Jones about the same time from which several copies by other Artists have been taken—At the time my fathers miniature was taken he was only 26 years of age—There are satisfactory documents to show that my father as an officer was a great favorite of Jones’s.

H. Lunt

[Note: The signature is overlaid with additions—an H and an L— doubtless by a family member who wished to clarify the elaborate cursive signature. However, the signature remained difficult to decipher and took an extended period of time to clarify. ]

Discussion of Raphaelle Peale profile portrait

Based on the evidence at hand, FRK titled the Raphaelle Peale profile portrait Henry Lunt, Jr., Age 29, Philadelphia 1805.

The Raphaelle Peale authorship is unquestionably a correct attribution, based on the published certainty of his authorship of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Art portrait Rubens Peale, an exact stylistic comparative to Henry Lunt, Jr. The attribution is also based a suggestive clue, the “younger Peale” reference in Mr. Lunt’s written testimony. 

No other examples of Raphaelle’s work in this profile portrait genre have been located in other public collections. 

The portrait descended in the much extended and diluted family of Henry Lunt, Jr. and carried no specific identification other than its companion document.  It was passed on recently as part of an estate dispersal, as “a distant relative (unnamed) on Phyllis Montgomery’s mother’s side” and with no designated authorship. 

FRK determined that the subject is Mr. H. Lunt, most likely Henry Lunt, Jr., whose difficult to read signature appears on the companion document; its overwritten parts were obviously added for clarity, offering a good clue which led to his identity and more.  

Lunt Jr.'s father, as correctly referenced but not named in Lunt Jr.'s note, was certainly 2nd Lt. Henry Lunt (of Newburyport, Mass.), an officer in Captain John Paul Jones's Continental Navy. Lunt is officially listed among the Continental Navy officers and (as Lunt. Jr. notes) is mentioned many times in JPJ's papers and in Naval papers. 

As yet, however, little has been discovered of the life of Henry Lunt Jr.

According to the Lunt family geneology, the first Lunt in America, Henry Lunt, came from England in 1634 and settled in Newburyport, MA, where many subsequent generations flourished .  His son Ensign Henry Lunt (1651-1709) apparently began the naval tradition in the British Navy.  The name Henry Lunt carries through the 17th, 18th and into the 19th centuries. 

Three, possibly four, nautical novels comprising the “Henry Lunt Series” were a surprising discovery. They were written by a Lunt descendant, Tom McNamara (as yet unlocated). Lt. Henry Lunt and John Paul Jones are the main characters! 

This combined attribution, image, and research has been discussed with and presented to the following scholars: Ellen Miles ( Specialist in Saint Memin and the Neoclassical Profile Portrait in America, National Portrait Gallery), David Ward (Historian, Peale Project, National Portrait Gallery ), Anne Sue Hirshorn (Peale Specialist, Curator, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum ), Sarah Coffin ( Specialist American Miniature Portraits, Curator, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum ).

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