Signed and dated, lower right: Gari Melchers | Detroit 1887

Inscribed, lower right: Gari Melchers | Detroit 1887

Thomas Pitts. Lendall Pitts. Mrs. Lendall Pitts. 1958-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Goodwin, D. Life and Services of James Pitts. Chicago, 1881, p. 39. ___________. Provincial Pictures by Brush and Pen. Chicago, 1886, pp. 7-8, 71-72. First Annual Exhibition and Art Loan Under the Auspices of the Art Club of Detroit. Exh. cat., Detroit Museum of Art. Detroit, 1895, p. 51, no. 598C. Payne, Elizabeth H. Portraits of Eight Generations of the Pitts Family: From the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century. Detroit, 1959, pp. 42-43 (ill.) E.H.P. “Gari Melchers’ Portrait of Thomas Pitts.” Bulletin of the DIA 39, 1 (1959-1960): p. 11. “Pitts Family Portraits of the 18th Century.” Antiques (January 1960): pp. 87-89. Gari Melchers: A Centenary Exhibition. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1960. Kenny, Sister M. Kilian. A History of Painting in Michigan 1850-World War II. Ph. D. diss., Wayne State University. Detroit, 1965, p. 199 (pl. 16). “The Old Northwest Territory.” Antiques (March 1965): pp. 302-311 (ill.).

Gari Melchers, Thomas Pitts, 1887, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase: Gibbs-Williams Fund, 58.362.