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Identification and Creation

Object Number
H14
People
John Singleton Copley, American (Boston, MA 1738 - 1815 London, England)
Mrs. Nathaniel (Margaret Gibbs) Appleton (1699 - 1771)
Title
Margaret Gibbs Appleton (Mrs. Nathaniel Appleton) (1699-1771)
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1763
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States, Massachusetts, Boston
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/299943

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
89.6 x 73.8 cm (35 1/4 x 29 1/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.l.: J.S. Copley Pinx 1763.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Descended to the sitter's son, John Appleton (1739-1817); descended through family to John James Appleton; his loan to Harvard College in 1855.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard University Portrait Collection, Loan from John James Appleton to Harvard College, 1855
Object Number
H14
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Henry T. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists: American Artist Life, Comprising Biographical and Critical Sketches of American Artists, Preceded by an Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of Art in America, Putnam (New York, NY, 1867), p. 72
  • Augustus Thorndyke Perkins, A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley, J. R. Osgood & Company (Boston, MA, 1873), p. 31
  • William Garrott Brown, A List of Portraits in the Various Buildings of Harvard University, Harvard University Library (Cambridge, MA, 1898), p. 7
  • Frank William Bayley, A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley, The Garden Press, W. B. Libby (Boston, MA, 1910), p. 11
  • Frank William Bayley, The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley: Founded on the Work of Augustus Thorndike Perkins, The Taylor Press (Boston, MA, 1915), p. 45
  • Theodore Bolton and Henry Lorin Binsse, "John Singleton Copley", The Antiquarian (New York, NY, December 1930), pp. 116-118., p. 116
  • M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Exhibition of American Painting, exh. cat., Press of H.S. Crocker Co., Inc. (San Francisco, 1935), cat. 4, pl. 4
  • Louisa Dresser, XVIIth Century Painting in New England, exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum (Worcester, MA, 1935), p. 31
  • Laura M. Huntsinger, Harvard Portraits: A Catalogue of Portrait Paintings at Harvard University, ed. Alan Burroughs, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1936), pp. 14-15
  • Alan Burroughs, Limners and Likenesses: Three Centuries of American Painting, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1936), p. 67, 78
  • Paintings of John Singleton Copley, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, 1936), n.p., ill.
  • Barbara N. Parker and Anne Bolling Wheeler, John Singleton Copley: American Portraits in Oil, Pastel and Miniature, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1938), p. 11, 26, pl. 38
  • Historical Records Survey, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Works Progress Administration, American Portraits, 1620-1825, found in Massachusetts, Volumes 1 and 2, Historical Records Survey (Boston, MA, 1939), p. 14, cat. 68
  • The catalogue of Old and New England; an exhibition of American painting of colonial and early republican days, together with English painting of the same time, exh. cat., Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art (Providence, RI, 1945), p. 37, cat. 14, ill.
  • James Thomas Flexner, John Singleton Copley, Houghton Mifflin Company (Boston, 1948), pp. 35-36, 127, pl. 13
  • Virgil Barker, "Copley's American Portraits", Magazine of Art (March 1950), pp. 83-88, p. 83
  • Four Boston Masters, exh. cat., Jewett Arts Center (Wellesley, MA, 1959), p. 66, ill.
  • H.C. Warwick and Henry C. Pitz, Early American Dress, B. Blom (New York, NY, 1965), pl. 73B
  • Jules David Prown, John Singleton Copley, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1966), vol. 1, pp. 37-38, 80, 102, 207, pl. 114
  • Elizabeth Ripley, Copley: A Biography, J. B. Lippincott (Philadelphia, PA, 1967), pp. 22-23, ill.
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., "An American Despite Himself", John Singleton Copley, ed. Carrie Rebora Barratt, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, 1995-1996), p. 88
  • Leigh Keno and Leslie Keno, Hidden Treasures: Searching for Masterpieces of American Furniture, Warner Books (New York, NY, 2000), pp. 263-64, ill. p. 264
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, Volume One: Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Artists Born before 1826, Yale University Press (U.S.) and Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge and New Haven, 2014), pp. 129-130, cat. 81, ill.

Exhibition History

  • American Paintings in New England Museums, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, 01/01/1932 - 12/31/1932
  • XVIIth Century Painting in New England, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, 07/01/1934 - 08/31/1934
  • Exhibition of American Painting, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 06/07/1935 - 07/07/1935
  • The Paintings of John Singleton Copley, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 12/22/1936 - 02/14/1937
  • Old and New England, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, 01/19/1945 - 02/19/1945
  • Unidentified [long term loan] 1951, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 07/27/1951 - 10/16/1987
  • Four Boston Masters, Jewett Arts Center, Wellesley, 04/10/1959 - 05/11/1959; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 05/19/1959 - 06/26/1959

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu