Daniel Huntington (1816-1906)
Oil on hardboard, 1865
Gift of the Partnership for New York City, Inc.
NYSM 2003.41.47

John Murray was born into a Pennsylvania Quaker family which later became prominent in New York City mercantile and shipping activities prior to the American Revolution. The Murray Hill section of Manhattan takes its name from this family, whose landholdings were extensive.

On Oct. 10, 1865, Daniel Huntington signed a receipt for five hundred dollars from the New York Chamber of Commerce for painting a “portrait of the late Mr. Murray, the head copied from Trumbull.” The chair, landscape, and placement of the sitter’s hands are Huntington’s composition. The original portrait of Murray by John Trumbull (1756-1843) is undoubtedly the portrait, painted in 1806, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.