James Pitts

between 1750 and 1754

Joseph Badger American, 1708-1765

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

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Provenance

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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About the Artwork

Title James Pitts

Artwork Date between 1750 and 1754

Artist Joseph Badger

Life Dates 1708-1765

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. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Overall: 35 1/2 × 27 3/4 inches (90.2 × 70.5 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. 58.355

Markings

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Provenance

by 1776, James Pitts (Boston, Massachusetts, USA);
his son, John Pitts (Tyngsborough, Massachussetts, USA);
his great-grandnephew, Thomas Pitts (Detroit, Michigan, USA);
Mrs. Thomas Pitts (Detroit, Michigan, USA);
her son, S. Lendall Pitts (Detroit, Michigan, USA);
Mrs. S. Lendall Pitts (Norfolk, Virginia, USA).
1958-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

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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.

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Published References

Goodwin, D. Life and Services of James Pitts and his Sons. Chicago, 1881, pp. 2, 33.

Goodwin, D. Provincial Pictures by Brush and Pen. Chicago, 1886, pp. 15-16.

Park, Lawrence. “An Account of Joseph Badger and a Descriptive List of his Work.” Massachusetts Historical Proceedings 51 (December 1917): p. 187.

_____________. Joseph Badger. Boston, 1918, pp. 32. [Park identifies sitter as James rather than John]

Richardson, E.P. “American Painting.” Bulletin of the DIA 14, 1 (October 1934): pp. 11-12.

Foote, Henry Wilder. John Simbert, Painter. Cambridge, MA, 1950, p. 183.

Portraits of Eight Generations of the Pitts Family from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Centuries. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1959, pp. 11, 18-19. [as John Pitts; NOTE: identity of sitter late disputed]

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

American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Volume 1: Works by Artists Born Before 1816. New York, 1991, p. 27, no. 6 (ill.).

Colman, Benjamin W. "Joseph Blackburn: A British Portrait Painter in the Atlantic World." Bulletin of the DIA 98, no. 1 (2024): p. 71 (fig. 5).

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