  About the Artwork
  
  
  In this portrait, Mary Boylston Hallowell (1722 – 1795) sits in comfort in luxurious surroundings, the large gray dove perched on her left hand signifying peaceful ease. Boston painter John Singleton Copley made a practice of rendering his Massachusetts sitters in fashionable settings. This was particularly appealing to the Boylston and Hallowell families, who commissioned seven portraits from the artist between 1765 and 1767.

The calm the artist depicted belies the reality of Hallowell’s life, which had recently been sent into turmoil. Mary’s husband Benjamin Hallowell (1725 – 1799) became a commissioner of customs for the port of Boston in 1764. Protestors ransacked the Hallowell house during 1765 riots against the British Stamp Act taxes, which Hallowell collected as customs commissioner. The family was not home at that time. In their absence, protestors attacked Copley’s portrait of Benjamin (Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine; and Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine), slashing it five times.
  
  
  Title
  Mrs. Benjamin Hallowell
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1766 or 1767
  
  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.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 47 × 37 1/2 inches (119.4 × 95.3 cm)
  Framed: 57 5/8 × 48 × 3 inches (146.4 × 121.9 × 7.6 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  American Art before 1950
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund, Dexter M. Ferry Jr. Fund, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund and Beatrice W. Rogers 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.
  
  
  
  71.168
  
  
  Copyright
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