Portrait of Richard Aldrich C. McCurdy, 1890
Oil on canvas John Singer Sargent, American, 1856–1925
Signed, reverse: John S. Sargent 1890
51 x 37 3/4 in. (P-002-81)Painted by John Singer Sargent, the preeminent portrait painter of his day, Richard Aldrich C. McCurdy (1835–1916) of Morristown, New Jersey, was named president of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York five years before the company commissioned this once fulll-length portrait of him. By 1906, McCurdy had become notorious as “the last and biggest of the life insurance company giants” to be driven from the field by the New York State Legislature.