Sketch for The Copley Family

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.

Sketch for The Copley Family

Copley, John Singleton

1776

Accession Number

1991.141.1

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.)

Classification

Painting

Museum

National Gallery of Art

Washington, D.C., United States

Credit Line

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