Portrait of a Young Woman
Photograph courtesy of Montchanin Fine Arts
Vital Statistics
Oil on canvas, 21½ x 17½Unsigned
Private Collection
Commentary
This portrait can be seen hanging on the wall of Trego's studio in a photograph taken there in 1893, but it can not be established definitively that Trego painted it himself. There is no signature, nor are there any references to it in his correspondence, or elsewhere. The work appears to be a highly skilled sketch, and not a finished portrait, but the style does not resemble Trego's known portraits and portrait sketches.The painting has been attributed to Trego since at least the 1960s when it passed through both Freeman's auction gallery and the Newman Galleries in Philadelphia. In July 1967, Walter A. Newman, Jr. sent a 35mm color slide of the painting to Helen Gemmill of the Bucks County Historical Society, who was researching Trego at that time. Ms. Gemmill deposited the slide with her other Trego materials in the Bucks County Historical Society. It was apparently the Newman Gallery that affixed a small label on the painting identifying the work as that of William Trego. Unfortunately, neither Newman Galleries nor Freeman's auction have retained any documentation on the painting. Thus the rationale for the attribution to Trego is unknown.