AMERICAN SCHOOL (19TH CENTURY) PORTRAIT OF CHARLES NESBITT EGE (B. 1815), oil on canvas laid on board, half-length depiction of a seated young man in partial profile within a painted oval reserve, no signature located, old typed label attached verso identifying sitter. Housed under glass in a slightly later molded-wood frame with ebonized elements and gilt liner. Circa 1835. 12" x 10 1/2" sight, 15 1/2" x 14 1/4" OA.
Good visual condition with minor craquelure throughout. Not examined out of frame.

Provenance: Property descended in the family of Dr. William Miller Duncan, Staunton, VA.
Catalogue Note: The present lot, along with a number of other items in the sale, descended from the family of Frederick Watts (1801-1889), the first U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, appointed by President Grant in 1871. Watts married his second wife, Henrietta Ege, in 1835, when she was just barely 18 years old. The present portrait depicts Henrietta's older brother, Charles Nesbitt Ege, as a young man, perhaps just returned from medical school at Princeton (then called the College of New Jersey), where he is recorded as a student in 1832.

Good visual condition with minor craquelure throughout. Not examined out of frame.