John Gray, 1766

  • John Singleton Copley, American, 1738-1815

Oil on canvas

  • Unframed: 49 3/8 × 39 1/4 inches (125.4 × 99.7 cm)
  • 56 3/8 × 46 3/8 × 3 1/4 inches (143.2 × 117.8 × 8.3 cm)

Founders Society Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund

43.30

On View

  • American, Level 2, West

Department

American Art before 1950

Signed and dated, lower right, on column base: J. S. Copley, pinxt 1766

Inscribed, lower right, on column base: J. S. Copley pinxt 1766

1766-1782, John Gray. 1873, Judge John Gray Otis (Boston, Massachusetts, USA). 1899, Judge John Gray Rodgers (Boston, Massachusetts, USA). by 1908, the Misses Rogers. 1928-1943, Mrs. W. Arthur Dupee

1943, dealer, M. Knoedler Co. (New York, New York, USA)

1943-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Bayley, Frank W. Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1910, p. 123. ______________. The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1915, p. 213 (ill.). Early American Portraits. Exh. cat., M. Knoedler Company. New York, 1921, no. 1. Bayley, Frank W. Five Colonial Artists of New England. Boston, 1929 (pl. 213). Bolton, Theodore and Harry Lorin Binsse. “John Singleton Copley.” Antiquarian 15 (December 1930): p. 116. Jones, E.A. Loyalists of Massachusetts: Their Memorials, Petitions, and Claims. London, 1930, p. 152 (ill.). The Paintings of John Singleton Copley. Exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1936, no. 17 (ill.). Parker, B. and Anne Wheeler. John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1938, pp. 88-89 (pl. 76). Richardson, Edgar P. Paintings in America: The Story of 450 Years. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1957, p. 72. Prown, Jules D. John S. Copley 1774-1815. Cambridge, MA, 1966, pp. 38-39, 53, 216 (fig. 171). Exhibition of Pictures from Museums of the United States of America. Exh. cat., The Hermitage. Leningrad, 1976, p. 11. Shaw, Nancy Rivard, et al. American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Volume I. New York, 1991, pp. 56, 58-59 (ill.).

John Singleton Copley, John Gray, 1766, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund, 43.30.