"Macbeth" by Peter Paul Duggan (Irish/American 1810 ? -1861)

Macbeth

Oil on artist board

Provenance: Sycamore Farm, Portsmouth, VA (Estate of Robert Vick and Charles Sibley)

Note: Listed in "The National Academy of Design Exhibition Record 1861-1900" page 249, number 482.

Painting Size: 6 ½” x 6 ½”
Frame Size: 10” x 10”

Born in Ireland, Duggan was brought to the United States as a young child, probably around 1810. He was a student at the National Academy of Design from approximately 1842-1849. He was a frequent exhibitor at the National Academy as well as at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.

Duggan was known to have exhibited works at the Academy (1844-51) which were religious and historical in nature although he was admired by his contemporaries as a portraitist in charcoal and crayon - undoubtedly the source of his livelihood. Later works exhibited (1855-56) were portraits only. He also sculpted several medals for distribution by the American Art-Union. In the late 1840’s Duggan was a professor of drawing at the Free Academy of New York (later the City College of New York).

Duggan suffered from tuberculosis and retired in 1856 at which time he went to live in London with relatives. In the spring of 1861 he went to Paris for what was intended to be an extended stay but was there only until October when he succumbed to his illness.

Sources:
Falk, Peter, ed. Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975
Groce & Wallace, Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860
Mallett, Daniel Trowbridge. Index of Artists