Mrs. Clark Gayton

1779

John Singleton Copley American, 1738-1815

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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Markings

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Provenance

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Exhibition History

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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About the Artwork

Elizabeth Legge Gayton (ca. 1748 – 1809) sits in elegant, relaxed repose. She rests on her left elbow, holding a brush in her right hand to suggest that she was only recently painting on the sheets of paper gathered in a loose folio at her side. A red geranium blooms in silhouette against the open window. Native to southern Africa, that flower had to be carefully protected from the cold English weather. The artist used these details to signal Gayton’s refinement, worldliness, and prosperity.

American artist John Singleton Copley painted this domestic portrait in London to hang alongside his naval portrait of Elizabeth’s new, significantly older husband Admiral Clark Gayton (1712 – 1785). In his portrait (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, United Kingdom), Admiral Gayton stands next to a table piled with nautical charts, in front of British naval ships on a stormy sea.

Title Mrs. Clark Gayton

Artwork Date 1779

Artist John Singleton Copley

Life Dates 1738-1815

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. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 50 × 40 inches (127 × 101.6 cm) Framed: 58 5/8 × 48 3/4 × 3 7/8 inches (148.9 × 123.8 × 9.8 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Gift of Mr. D. J. Healy

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. 27.556

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, middle right: J. S. Copley, fec. 1779

Inscriptions At center right, J. S. Copley, fec. 1779

Provenance

1779-1809, the sitter, Mrs. Clark Gayton;
1809-1822, her third husband, Reverend James Pigott;
his daughter, Lydia Pigott [Mrs. William Thresher] (Fareham, Hampshire, England); Captain W. Thresher (R.N., Avenue End, Fareham, Hampshire, England);
his niece, Lucy Mabel Thresher.
1922, O'Hagan sale (Christie's, lot 106, London, England).
(M. Knoedler Co., London, England).
1927, Woolworth sale, (lot 876, American Art Association);
1927, Metropolitan Galleries (New York, New York, USA);
1927-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

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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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Published References

Burroughs, Clyde. “A Portrait by Copley.” Bulletin of the DIA 9, 6 (March 1928): pp. 69-70 (ill.).

Bolton, Theodore and Harry Lorin Binsse. “John Singleton Copley.” Antiquarian 15 (December 1930): p. 116.

Heil, Walter and Clyde H. Burroughs. Catalogue of Paintings in the Permanent Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts of the City of Detroit. Detroit, 1930, no. 285.

Richardson, Edgar P. “American Portrait Painting.” Bulletin of the DIA 14, 1 (October 1934): p. 11.

Prown, Jules D. John S. Copley 1774-1815. Cambridge, MA, 1966, pp. 275, 420 (fig. 384).

Shaw, Nancy Rivard, et al. American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Volume I. New York, 1991, pp. 64-65 (ill.).

Ferguson, Patricia. "Indoor Gardening in the Eighteenth-Century." Antiques 155, 1 (January 1999): pp. 168-177 (ill.).

American Beauty: Painting and Sculpture from the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1770-1920. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 2002, pp. 13-14, no. 6 (ill.).

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