Lot 187: Raphaelle Peale (1774-1825)

Portrait of Henry Lunt, Jr., circa 1805
Together with the original black Moroccan leather hinged frame and two locks of hair
watercolor, ink and graphite on paper
5 1/2 x 4 1/2 in.
The frame lined with a document that reads Mem' 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.

Henry Lunt, Jr.
Thence by descent in the family
Estate of Phyllis Montgomery
Thence to current owner

This rare portrait is virtually identical to an unsigned portrait of Rubens Peale by Raphaelle Peale, now in the collection of the National Museum of American Art and it is only the second known example of this type of profile portrait made by Raphaelle Peale; illustrated in Charles Elam, The Peale Family (Detroit, 1967), pp 112- 113 and in Ellen Miles, St. Memin and the Neoclassical Profile Portrait in America (Washington, 1994), p.112. The locks of hair that accompany this painting were housed within the original Moroccan leather frame; the dark brown lock tied with a similar ribbon as depicted in the portrait is likely to have been taken circa 1805. The gray lock is likely to have been inserted when the portrait was framed along with the note, in 1852.

Little is known of Henry Lunt, Jr. Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1776 to 2nd Lt.Henry Lunt of the Continental Navy (1753-1805) and Sarah Orcutt (1755-1838), he married Mary Green Pearson in 1801. He died in 1859, in Boston, Massachusetts.

As noted, his father 2nd Lt. Henry Lunt served with distinction under John Paul Jones on the Bon Homme Richard, the Alliance, and the Ariel. The first Henry Lunt (d.1662) arrived from England in 1634 on the Mary and John with his wife, Ann. The Lunts were original settlers of Newburyport and together began one of America's founding families. The Lunt family has long been prominent in Essex County, Massachusetts.