Lucy Bradley

1794

Ralph Earl American, 1751-1801

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

Lucy Bradley sits in the green fields of her family's Connecticut farm, with a view of the Long Island Sound in the distance. The twenty-six-year-old wears a dress of glossy pink silk and unfolds a delicate painted fan in her hands. The loose curls of hair hanging over her shoulders suggest a pose of informal ease.

Born in colonial Massachusetts, painter Ralph Earl studied and worked in England during the American Revolution. He returned to the United States after the war and traveled around New England to find portrait commissions. He painted Lucy and her sister Huldah Bradley (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) in 1794. When placed side by side, the paintings depict a continuous landscape — Greenfield Hill in Fairfield, Connecticut, where the Bradley family lived.

Title Lucy Bradley

Artwork Date 1794

Artist Ralph Earl

Life Dates 1751-1801

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 44 1/8 × 31 1/4 inches (112.1 × 79.4 cm) Framed: 52 × 39 5/8 × 3 inches (132.1 × 100.6 × 7.6 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 41.4

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, left lower center: R. Earl Pinx | 1794

Inscriptions Inscribed, left lower center: R. Earl Pinx | 1794

Provenance

Hudley and Lucy Bradley.
1918, the sitter's grandnephew, William Bradley (Greenfield Hill, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA);
his daughter, Mrs. E. B. Morehouse (Greenfield Hill, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA);
1941, her son, Louis E. Morehouse (Westport, Connecticut, USA);
1941-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

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