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John Mason Furness (Boston, Massachusetts, 1763-1804)Self Portrait
2 – 12 August 2025, 12:00 EDT
Online, Skinner Marlborough, MassachusettsUS$300 - US$500
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John Mason Furness (Boston, Massachusetts, 1763-1804)
Self Portrait
unsigned
oil on canvas, trimmed and laid over later stretched canvas in giltwood frame
29 x 24 in.
framed 32 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.
unsigned
oil on canvas, trimmed and laid over later stretched canvas in giltwood frame
29 x 24 in.
framed 32 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.
Footnotes
Provenance
By descent through the artist's brother, William Furness (1767-1836), to James Thwing Furness (1812-91) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Gift from his daughters, Misses Rebekah Thwing Furness (1854-1937) and Laura Furness (1857-1949) of Boston, Massachusetts, to their cousin Fairman Rogers Furness (1889-1971) of Middletown, Pennsylvania, 1930.
By descent to consignor through his nephew, Wirt Furness Thompson (1907-79) of Philadelphia.
A note affixed to reverse: "Portrait of John Mason Furness by himself / Born March 4, 1763 / Died June 22, 1804 / John Mason Furness, engraver and portrait painter, was the son of John Furness and his wife Anne Hurd. He was the brother of William Furness, your great, great, grandfather. He was unmarried and died when 31 [sic] years old. We always heard him spoken of as "Uncle Jack". / Given to me by my cousins Rebe and Laura Furness, Summer of 1930 - they wrote the above information - / F.R. Furness / 1931".
Note
John Mason Furness (or Furnass) was the nephew of Nathaniel Hurd (1730-77), a Boston goldsmith and engraver who, along with Paul Revere, sat for a portrait by John Singleton Copley in the mid-1760s. In his will dated 1777, Hurd left his printing press and engraving tools to Furness, "in consideration of the love I bear to him, & the genius he discovers for the same business which I have followed & to which I intended to have brought him up to." Among surviving works by Furness are engraved bookplates and certificates for the Massachusetts Loan Society, as well as portrait commissions. One of two portraits that Furness made of Boston schoolmaster John Vinal is in the Brooklyn Museum (acc. no. 41.878). The artist's own nephew was the prominent Unitarian and abolitionist Reverend William Henry Furness (1802-96), father of the successful Philadelphia architect Frank Heyling Furness (1839-1912).