The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 4, 2023

Catherine Greene

1769

John Singleton Copley

(American, 1738–1815)

America, 18th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 145.5 x 121 x 7 cm (57 5/16 x 47 5/8 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 125.7 x 101 cm (49 1/2 x 39 3/4 in.)

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1915.527

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Small, shimmering pearls in the woman's hair and on her sleeves add an opulent touch to this portrait.

Description

The Boston painter Copley's virtuosity at rendering luxurious textiles was precisely the kind of talent that appealed to his patrons. In 1769 the prosperous merchant John Greene commissioned a portrait of himself and this portrait of his wife, Catherine (1735–1785), after thirteen years of marriage. Shown at the age of 34, Mrs. Greene wears a fanciful costume inspired by ancient styles, strikes a pose derived from an English engraving, and pretends to lean against a rock that looks as insubstantial as a theatrical prop. This likeness places Mrs. Greene in an ideal realm far removed from mundane matters. The frame is original.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed lower right: "JSCp. 1769 [JSC in monogram]"

Provenance
Margaret Greene Spencer, sister of the sitter; Phebe Greene Ward; John Ward, son of Phebe Greene Ward; Charles Henry Ward, grandnephew of John Ward, inherited in 1866; Mary M. Ward, widow of Charles Henry Ward; (New York sale 1914); (Vose Gallery, Boston: the first painting bought by the Museum, 1915).
Citations
Perkins, Augustus Thorndike. A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston: Priv. Print, 1873. Mentioned: p. 67
Clarke, Louise Brownell, George Sears Greene, and F. V. Greene. The Greenes of Rhode Island: With Historical Records of English Ancestry, 1534-1902. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1903.
Bayley, Frank W. The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley: founded on the Work of Augustus Thorndike Perkins. Boston: Taylor Press, 1915. Mentioned: p. 129-130
"The Collection of Paintings." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 2, no. 2 (1915): 4-5. Reproduced: cover; mentioned: p. 5 www.jstor.org
Bell, Hamilton. "Early American Portraits at The Cleveland Museum of Art." The American Magazine of Art. 7:12 (October, 1916). p. 484-8. Mentioned: p. 484-488; Reproduced: p. 488
Gibson, Katharine. The Goldsmith of Florence: A Book of Great Craftsmen. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1929. Mentioned: p. 150-70; Reproduced: p. 155
Bolton, Theodore and Harry Lorin Binsee. "John Singleton Copley." The Antiquarian. 15:6 (December, 1930). p. 76-84. Mentioned: p. 76-84; Reproduced: p. 80
Parker, Barbara Neville, and Anne Bolling Wheeler. John Singleton Copley; American Portraits in Oil, Pastel, and Miniature with Biographical Sketches. Boston, MA: Museum of Fine Arts, 1938. Mentioned: p. 90-91; Reproduced: plate 98
Sellers, Charles Coleman. "Mezzotint Prototypes of Colonial Portraiture: A Survey Based on the Research of Waldron Phoenix Belknap, Jr." The Art Quarterly. 20:4 (Winter, 1957). p. 407-68. Mentioned: p. 407-68; Reproduced: p. 448, fig. 37A
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 530 archive.org
Belknap, Waldron Phoenix, Jr. American Colonial Painting: Materials for a History. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1959. Reproduced: p. 307, no. 40A, plate XXXVI
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 160 archive.org
Prown, Jules David. John Singleton Copley: In America 1738-1774. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1966. Reproduced: p. 216, fig. 261
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 160 archive.org
Cleveland Museum of Art. "A Check List: American Paintings and Water Colors of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Early Twentieth Centuries in The Cleveland Museum of Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. 60:1 (January, 1973). p. 1-36. Mentioned: p. 24, fig. 41
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 198 archive.org
Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 114
Turner, Evan H. Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 46
Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p. 43
Tieken, Nancy B., et. al. American Art from the Currier Gallery of Art. New York: The American Federation of Arts, 1995 Reproduced: p. X, cat. 1
Hecksher, Morrison H. "Copley's Picture Frames." John Singleton Copley in America. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995. Mentioned: p. 151
Barratt, Carrie Rebora. John Singleton Copley and Margaret Kemble Gage: Turkish Fashion in 18th-Century America. San Diego, CA: Putnam Foundation, 1998. Reproduced: p. 17, cat. 3
Cole, Mark. "Two by Copley." Cleveland Art. 46 (October, 2006). Reproduced: p. 7
Adams, Henry. What's American About American Art?: A Gallery Tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008. Reproduced: p. 9, fig. 1
Exhibition history

Providence, RI, Rhode Island School of Design (1915 or before?) (see R.C. Vose letter 28 June 1015).

Cleveland, The Cleveland School of Art, A Group of Paintings by Early American Artists (17 January - 1 February 1915).

Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Catalogue of the Inaugural Exhibition (6 June - 20 September 1916), cat. no. 127, p. 38, illus. p. 251.

Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition (26 June-4 October, 1936), cat. no. 22, pp. 21-22.

Columbus, OH, The Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, The Colonial Americas (9 October - 9 November 1947).

Boston, Vose Galleries of Boston, Inc., A Loan Exhibition Honoring Robert Churchill Vose on Commencing his Sixty-Fifth Year as Head of this Firm: Forty Paintings Which have Passed Through his Hands (7 - 25 March 1961), cat. no. 9.

Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum (6 June - 8 September 1991).

San Diego, CA, The Timken Museum of Art, John Singleton Copley and Margaret Kemble Gage: Turkish Fashion in 18th Century America (10 December 1998 - 11 April 1999); traveled to Canton, OH, Canton Art Museum (25 April - 13 June 1999), cat. no. 3, p. 17.

Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 29 - December 17, 2006): "CMA @ Oberlin - American Portraits"

Inaugural Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 6-September 20, 1916).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 12, 1936).

64th Anniversary of Opening of Gallery. Vose Gallery, Boston, MA (organizer) (March 7-25, 1961).

Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).

Turkish Fashion in 18th-century America. Timken Museum of Art, San Diego, CA (organizer) (December 10, 1998-April 11, 1999); Canton Museum of Art, Canton, OH (April 25-June 13, 1999).

CMA @ Oberlin - American Portraits. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 29-December 17, 2006).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1915.527