LIEUTENANT RAYMOND PERRY, U.S. NAVY, C. 1813.
Oil on canvas, 24 1/8 x 20 1/8 inches; within carved and gilded frame. Portrait of Lieutenant Raymond Henry Jones Perry (1789-1826) in the undress uniform of a Navy lieutenant per the 1812 Navy regulations, probably painted to celebrate his promotion to lieutenant in 1813. Raymond was the second son of Captain Christopher Perry and began his naval career in 1807 when he was appointed midshipman and assigned to Gunboat No. 42 in Newport, then commanded by his older brother Oliver Hazard Perry, the future victor of the Battle of Lake Erie. In January 1811, Raymond was assigned to the frigate President as master's mate and appointed acting lieutenant that March, in which capacity he served until being commissioned as lieutenant in 1813. On 22 April 1814, he was assigned to the Lake Champlain squadron and appointed first lieutenant of Commodore Thomas Macdonough's flagship, Saratoga. The Commodore's official report of the decisive American naval victory at Plattsburgh on 11 September noted that "The absence and sickness of Lt. Raymond Perry left me without the services of that excellent Officer & much ought fairly to be attributed to him for his great care and attention in disciplining the Ships crew." He commanded the USS Snark as part of Commodore Bainbridge's squadron during the 1815 War with Algiers and later was involved in suppressing piracy in the West Indies during the 1820s. Returning with a broken constitution, he died on 12 March 1826. Provenance: by descent in the Perry family to William Francis Payson, Jr. (d. 2016). John Ferguson Weir (1841-1926) later painted a ¾ length portrait of this handsome young officer for his descendants, copying the head from this life portrait of Raymond by Jarvis, but utilizing the seated pose and lieutenant's full dress uniform details from an 1808 portrait of his older brother Oliver Hazard. Provenance: by direct descent to Wiliam F. Payson, Sr., Rhode Island, New York, and New Hampshire. Relined. Item #116
Price: $6,000.00