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Joseph Green
John Singleton Copley (American, 1738–1815)
1767
Medium/Technique
Pastel on paper mounted on canvas
Dimensions
60.64 x 45.4 cm (23 7/8 x 17 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Julia Knight Fox Fund
Accession Number25.50
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAmericas, Prints and Drawings
ClassificationsPastels
Copley was well aware of Europe's fashion for pastel portraits. In 1762-taking a bold step for a young, provincial painter-Copley wrote to one of the medium's leading practitioners, Swiss artist Jean-Etienne Liotard, asking him to send a box of the "very best [pastels] that can be got." Copley's mastery of the difficult medium is evident in this stylish, informal image of Green, a Boston merchant known for his shrewd wit and satiric poetry.
InscriptionsCenter right: JSC/1767 [JSC in monogram]
ProvenanceThe artist; the sitter; to Gideon Snow, Boston, the sitter's nephew; to Rev. Theodore W. Snow, his son; to Miss H. Elizabeth Snow, Pomfret, Conn., his daughter; to MFA, 1925, purchased for $1,200.