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Mrs. Alexander Cumming, née Elizabeth Goldthwaite, later Mrs. John Bacon
- 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_1939_xrs_detail01.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1939
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.
debwythe
erin_trying
Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum 
