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Collections: American Art: Mrs. Alexander Cumming, née Elizabeth Goldthwaite, later Mrs. John Bacon

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Mrs. Alexander Cumming, née Elizabeth Goldthwaite, later Mrs. John Bacon

The natural half-light and careful detailing in this very direct portrait of a young minister's wife demonstrate the achievement of the young John Singleton Copley, America's greatest colonial portraitist. In comparison to his early works, which were more deliberately prettified (in a European manner known as the Rococo), this portrait of Mrs. Cumming reveals Copley's growing passion for the accurate but artful description of light on forms and textures.

Artist: John Singleton Copley, American, 1738-1815
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dates: 1770
Dimensions: 29 13/16 x 24 11/16 in. (75.7 x 62.7 cm)
Signature: Signed lower right (initials in monogram): "J S C p. Bost 1770"
Collections: American Art
Museum Location: This item is on view in American Identities: A New Look, American Landscape/Colony to Nation, 5th Floor
Accession Number: 22.84
Credit Line: Gift of Walter H. Crittenden
Image: X-ray, CONS.22.84_1995_xrs.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1995

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