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John Singleton Copley

Sketch for The Copley Family, 1776

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall (oval): 39.5 x 34 cm (15 9/16 x 13 3/8 in.)

framed: 60 x 54.3 x 5.7 cm (23 5/8 x 21 3/8 x 2 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Richard T. York, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art

Accession Number

1991.141.1

Artists / Makers

John Singleton Copley (painter) American, 1738 - 1815

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

The artist's grandson, John Singleton Copley Greene [1810-1872], Brookline, Massachusetts;[1] his daughter, Mary Amory Greene [1860-d. by 1938], Boston;[2] her sister-in-law, Rosalind Huidekoper Greene [Mrs. Henry Copley Greene, d. 1975], Cambridge, Massachusetts;[3] her daughter, Joy Singleton Copley Greene Sweet [Mrs. Gordon Sweet], Mount Carmel, Connecticut;[4] (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1978); Jo Ann and Julian Ganz, Jr., Los Angeles; (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York); Richard T. York [1950-2003], New York; gift 1991 to NGA.

[1] Augustus Thorndike Perkins, A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley, Boston, 1873, 48, who describes Greene as "the late John Singleton Copley Greene, Longwood." The inclusion of the name of Greene's home in Brookline, Massachusetts, distinguishes him from his son, John Singleton Copley Greene, Jr., who died the same year. Greene was the son of Elizabeth Clarke Copley, the artist's daughter, and Gardiner Greene; see The Greene Family in England and America with Pedigrees, Boston, 1901, 83-86, and Louise Brownell Clarke, The Greenes of Rhode Island, with Historical Records of English Ancestry, 1534-1902, New York, 1903, 432, 580.

[2] Theodore Bolton and Harry Lorin Binsse, "John Singleton Copley," Antiquarian 15, no. 6 (December 1930), 116; an old label now attached to the backing board reads: "COPLEY J. S., LORD LYNDHURST AND HIS MOTHER Lent by Miss Mary Amory Greene." Her birth date is given in Greene Family 1901, 84, and Clarke 1903, 432.

[3] Mrs. Greene was the lender of the portrait to exhibitions held in 1938 and 1961. Her husband Henry Copley Greene [1871 1951] was a half-brother of Mary Amory Greene; they were the children of John Singleton Copley Greene, Jr.; Greene Family 1901, 84, and Clarke 1903, 432, 687. Mrs. Greene is mentioned in her husband's entries in Who's Who in America, Chicago, 1948, 25:970, and Who Was Who among American Authors, 1921-1939, 2 vols., Detroit, 1976, 1:619.

[4] She is mentioned in her father's entry in Who's Who 1948, 970. According to Recent Acquisitions of American Art, 1769-1938, Exh. cat., Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1979, no. 3, she owned the sketch from 1966 to 1978.

Associated Names

Ganz, Jr., Julian, Mr. and Mrs.
Greene, John Singleton Copley
Greene, Mary Amory
Greene, Rosalind Huidekoper
Hirschl & Adler Galleries
Hirschl & Adler Galleries
Sweet, Joy Singleton Copley Greene
York, Richard T.

Exhibition History

1894: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1894-1932, 1933-1964, 1965-1972. [See Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Adventure & Inspiration; American Artists in Other Lands. New York, 1988: 16.

1938: John Singleton Copley, 1738-1815, Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Pastels, Miniatures and Drawings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1938, 22, no. 24, as The Copley Family (Sketch).

1961: Centennial Loan Exhibiton, Drawings & Watercolors from Alumnae and Their Families, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie; Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 1961, no. 68, as Study of Lord Lyndhurst and Mother (for The Copley Family).

1972: Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 1972-1978. [See Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Adventure & Inspiration; American Artists in Other Lands. New York, 1988: 16.]

1979: Recent Acquisitions of American Art 1769-1938, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1979, no. 3, frontispiece and color repro.

1981: An American Perspective: Nineteenth-Century Art from the collection of Jo Ann & Julian Ganz, Jr., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1981-1982, 9, 44, 90, 124, fig. 28.

1995: John Singleton Copley in England, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1995-1996, not in cat. (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

1873: Perkins, Augustus Thorndike. A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1873: 48.

1910: Bayley, Frank W. A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1910: 109.

1915: Bayley, Frank W. The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1915: 85, 102.

1930: Bolton, Theodore and Harry Lorin Binsse. "John Singleton Copley." The Antiquarian 15 (December 1930): 116.

1938: John Singleton Copley, 1738-1815, Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Pastels, Miniatures and Drawings, Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1938: no. 24.

1957: Rutledge, Anna Wells. "American Loyalists - A Drawing for a Noted Copley Group." The Art Quarterly 20, no. 2 (Summer 1957): 201, fig. 4.

1961: Centennial Loan Exhibition, Drawings & Watercolors from Alumnae and Their Families, Exh. cat. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie and Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 1961: no. 68.

1966: Prown, Jules David. John Singleton Copley, vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966, pp. 262-263, 415, fig. 345.

1979: Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., Recent Acquisitions of American Art, 1769-1938. New York, 1979: unpaginated, no. 3, color frontispiece.

1980: Troyen, Carol. The Boston Tradition; American Paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Exh. cat. The American Federation of Arts. New York, 1980: 66-67.

1981: An American Perspective: 19th Century Art from the Collection of Jo Ann & Julian Ganz, Jr.., Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1981-1982: 9, 44, 90, 124, fig. 28.

1988: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Adventure & Inspiration: American Artists in Other Lands. New York, 1988: 16, no. 5, repro.

1990: Richard York Gallery. An American Gallery. Vol. 6, no. 1. New York, 1990: unpaginated, repro.

1995: Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 43-45, repro. 45.