Museum Collections

This bust of Chancellor Livingston came from the house of Dr. William Wilson (1756-1828), a neighbor in the Hudson Valley. When Dr. Wilson came to New York in 1784 from the University of Glasgow, bearing a letter of introduction to Livingston, the latter invited him to settle at Clermont. While there, Wilson became the Chancellor's intimate friend, and many years later the executor of his estate. The bust was carved out of pine and painted white to resemble marble. It was most likely produced after Livingston’s death on commission from Wilson, and may have been modeled after a portrait of the Chancellor, such as one painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1794.