The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of January 29, 2023

Nathaniel Hurd

c. 1765

John Singleton Copley

(American, 1738–1815)

America, 18th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 90.5 x 78 x 6.5 cm (35 5/8 x 30 11/16 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 76.2 x 64.8 cm (30 x 25 1/2 in.)

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1915.534

Location

204 Colonial American

Fun Fact

The artist Copley’s in-laws were consignees for the cargo dumped during the Boston Tea Party.

Description

Hurd was a prominent silversmith and engraver in Boston, and the warm gaze and unforced smile in his portrait by Copley suggest the friendship between the two artists. Hurd's open-collared shirt, as well as the rakishly tilted turban that covers his shaved head in place of a ceremonial powdered wig, create an air of informality that is unusual for a portrait of this time.

Provenance
-1781
Benjamin Hurd [1739-1781], Halifax, Nova Scotia, by descent to his son, John Hurd
1781-
John Hurd, Halifax, Nova Scotia, by descent to his two daughters
-by 1860
Daughters of John Hurd [d. by 1860], Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Mrs. Thomas Barry
By 1860-1869
Mrs. Thomas Barry [d. 1869], Halifax, Nova Scotia, by gift to Walter Wesselhoeft
1869-1915
Walter Wesselhoeft [1838-1920], Cambridge, MA, consigned to the Copley Gallery
1915
(Copley Gallery, Boston, MA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1915-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
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. 17, 75-6
Bayley, Frank W. The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley: Founded on the Work of Augustus Thorndike Perkins. Boston, MA: Taylor Press, 1915. Mentioned: p. 151-152
W. H. D. "The Fine Arts: Fine Portrait by Copley." The Boston Transcript, October, 1915.
The American Art News. 14:23 (March 11, 1916): 1-10. Reproduced: p. 5
"Clevel'd Gets Early Am'ns." The American Art News. 14:24 (March 18, 1916): 1-8. Mentioned: p. 1
"The Inauguration." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. 3:2 (July, 1916): 1-24. Reproduced: opposite p. 1
Bell, Hamilton. "Early American Portraits at the Cleveland Museum of Art." The American Magazine of Art. 7:12 (October, 1916). Mentioned: p. 484-5; Reproduced: p. 485
Cleveland Museum of Art. An Appreciation of Copley's "Nathaniel Hurd": John Huntington Collection. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1918.
Dunlap, William. A History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States. 1. Boston: C.E. Goodspeed & Co, 1918. Mentioned: p. 172-4; Reproduced: opposite p. 173
"Special Exhibition Cabinet." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. 5:1. (January 1918). Mentioned: p. 3 www.jstor.org
"Report of the Museum's Second Year." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 6/7 (1918): 69-79. Mentioned: p. 71 www.jstor.org
Clearwater, Alphonso Trumpbour, and C. Louise Avery. American Silver of the 17th and 18th Centuries: A Study Based on the Clearwater Collection. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1920. Reproduced: fig. 101
"Early Portrait Study by Copley." Art News. 22:19 (February 16, 1923). Reproduced: p. 9
L. P. "Portrait of Nathaniel Hurd by Copley." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. 10:3 (March 1923). Mentioned: p. 39-40
"When Copley Portrayed an Early Craftsman." Art News. (June 9, 1923). Reproduced: p. 4
National Collection of Fine Arts (U.S.), Washington Loan Exhibition Committee. Exhibition of Early American Paintings, Miniatures and Silver. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1925. Reproduced: p. 80
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925. Mentioned: p. 7-8; Reproduced: p. 8 archive.org
Dow, George Francis. The Arts & Crafts in New England, 1704-1775; Gleanings from Boston Newspapers Relating to Painting, Engraving, Silversmiths, Pewterers, Clockmakers, Furniture, Pottery, Old Houses, Costume, Trades and Occupations, & C... Topsfield, MA: Wayside Press, 1927. Mentioned: p. 8; Reproduced: frontispiece
Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928. Reproduced: p. 8 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928. Reproduced: p. 8 archive.org
Bayley, Frank W. Five Colonial Artists of New England: Joseph Badger, Joseph Blackburn, John Singleton Copley; Robert Feke, John Smibert. Boston, MA: Privately Printed, 1929. Reproduced: fig. 229
Bolton, Theodore and Harry Lorin Binsse. "John Singleton Copley." The Antiquarian. 15:6 (December, 1930). Reproduced: p. 80-81
Stark, Harold. Art in America from 1600 to 1865; An Illustrated Guide for a National Radio Broadcast from February 3 to May 19, 1934. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1934. Reproduced: p. 19
Cahill, Holger, and Alfred H. Barr, Jr., eds. Art in America: A Complete Survey. New York, NY: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1935. Mentioned: p. 17; Reproduced: p. 18
Milliken, William. "Special Number for the 20th Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition." The Art News. (June 13, 1936). Reproduced: p. 14
Burroughs, Louise. "John Singleton Copley." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 31:12 (December 1936). Mentioned: p. 254
Frankfurter, Alfred M. "J. S. Copley, American Master." Art News. 35:13 (December 26, 1936). Reproduced: p. 12
Jewell, Edward Alden. "Copley: Metropolitan Opens Bicentennial Show." The New York Times, December 27, 1936. Mentioned: p. 9
Parker, Barbara Neville, and Anne Bolling Wheeler. John Singleton Copley; American Portraits in Oil, Pastel, and Miniature. Boston, MA: Museum of Fine Arts, 1938. Reproduced: p. 118-9, pl. 61A
French, Hollis. Jacob Hurd and His Sons Nathaniel & Benjamin: Silversmiths 1702-1781. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press for the Walpole Society, 1939. Reproduced: frontispiece; Mentioned: pp. 138-40
Hagen, Oskar. The Birth of the American Tradition in Art. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940. Reproduced: p. 89; Mentioned: pp. 102-105
Foote, Helen S. "A Collection of Early American Silver Gift of Hollis French." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. 27:9 (November, 1940). Mentioned: p. 135
Flint Institute of Arts. Art Marches on!: The Opening and Dedicating Exhibition of the New Flint Institute of Arts. Flint, MI: The Institute, 1941. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 30, fig. 50
"Cleveland's First 25 Years." ARTnews. 40:11 (September, 1941). Mentioned: p. 13, 25; Reproduced: p. 13
Walker, John, and Macgill James. Great American Paintings from Smibert to Bellows, 1729-1924. London: Oxford University Press, 1943. Reproduced: no. 10
"Cleveland Museum." Life (September 20, 1943). Reproduced: p. 68
King, Winnifred. "Their Hands." The Christian Science Monitor. November 20, 1943.
Adams, James Truslow. Album of American History. volume 1. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1944. Reproduced: p. 345
Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. Reproduced: p. 12 archive.org
"The Arts in America in the Eighteenth Century." Bulletin of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College. 3:3 (May, 1946). Mentioned: p. 67, 90, 99; Reproduced: p. 66
Phillips, John Marshall. American Silver. New York, NY: Chanticleer Press, 1949. Mentioned: p. 82-6; Reproduced: p. 83
Barker, Virgil. American Painting: History and Interpretation. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company, 1950. Mentioned: p. 144, 147-8; Reproduced: p. 145
"A bird's-eye view of early American painting." Antiques. 62 (November 1952). Reproduced: p. 402
Milliken, William Mathewson. The Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1958. Mentioned: p. 60
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 529 archive.org
"Portraits of American Craftsmen." Antiques. 76. (October 1959). Reproduced: p. 321
Larkin, Oliver W. Art and Life in America. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960. Reproduced: pl. 1
Kindlers Malerei Lexicon. volume 1. Zurich, Switzerland: 1964. Reproduced: p. 776
Museum of Fine Arts, Saint Petersburg. Inaugural Exhibition, February 7 Through March 7, 1965. Saint Petersburg, FL: 1965.
Prown, Jules David. John Singleton Copley: In America 1738-1774. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966. Mentioned: p. 52-55; Reproduced: no. 177
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 161 archive.org
Wright, Louis B., George B. Tatum, John W. McCoubrey, and Robert C. Smith. The Arts In America: The Colonial Period. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1966. Reproduced: p. 204
Wilson, Patricia Boyd. The Christian Science Monitor. January 19, 1966.
Cirker, Hayward, and Blanche Cirker. Dictionary of American Portraits: 4045 Pictures of Important Americans from Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century. New York, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1967 Reproduced: p. 322
Myers, Bernard S. Art and Civilization. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1967. Mentioned: p. 319-320; Reproduced: p. 319
McLanathan, Richard B. K. The American Tradition in the Arts. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968. Mentioned: p. 91-2
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 161 archive.org
Plate, Robert. John Singleton Copley: America's First Great Artist. New York, NY: David McKay Co, 1969. Mentioned: p. 27, 48
Novak, Barbara. American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism, and the American Experience. New York, NY: Praeger Publishers, 1969. Mentioned: p. 24-5; Reproduced: p. 24
Lee, Sherman E. Introduction to The Cleveland Museum of Art. Hannover: Knorr & Hirth, 1970. Mentioned: p. 64; Reproduced: no. 29
Mooz, Ralph Peter. "The Art of Robert Feke." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1970. Mentioned: p. 177
Glubok, Shirley, and Gerard Nook. The Art of Colonial America. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company, 1970. Reproduced: p. 25
Neumeyer, Alfred. "Nordamerikanische Kunst." Die Kunst des 18. Jahrhunderts. ed. Harald Keller. Berlin: Propylaen Verlag, 1971. Reproduced: p. 431, pl. 68
Fales, Martha Gandy. Early American Silver. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co, 1973. Mentioned: p. 94, 239, 319
Adler, Mortimer Jerome, ed. The Revolutionary Years: Britannica's Book of the American Revolution. Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1976. Reproduced: p. 245
Wilmerding, John. American Art. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1976. Mentioned: p. 38
Montgomery, Charles F., and Patricia E. Kane. American Art, 1750-1800: Towards Independence. Boston, MA: Published for Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, by the New York Graphic Society, 1976. Reproduced: p. 132
"American Image." Plain Dealer. Section 5 - 8. (January 18, 1976). Mentioned and Reproduced: Section 5 - 8
Brown, Milton W. American Art to 1900: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1977. Mentioned: p. 101-2; Reproduced: no. 164, p. 102
Johnson, Mark M. "Portrait Painting - An Image of Man." Arts and Activities. 82 (September 1977). Mentioned: p. 34; Reproduced: p. 36
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
Ward, Barbara McLean, and Gerald W. R. Ward, eds. Silver in American Life: Selections from the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University. New York: American Federation of Arts, 1979. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 76
Boros, Ethel. "Early American Silver." Plain Dealer. (September 22, 1979). Mentioned: p. 34-5; Reproduced: p. 34
Emlen, Robert P. "Wedding Silver for the Browns: A Rhode Island Family Patronizes a Boston Goldsmith." The American Art Journal. 56:2 (Spring 1984). Reproduced: p. 8
Janson, H. W. History of Art. Third edition. New York, NY: Prentice Hall & Harry Abrams, 1986. Mentioned: p. 20; Reproduced: p. 21
Buchanan, Penelope D. "John Singleton Copley: Portrait of Nathaniel Hurd." Art Education. 40:1 (January 1987). Mentioned: p. 27-8; Reproduced: p. 28
Turner, Evan H., ed. Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Mentioned: p. 45; Reproduced: p. 46
Handbook of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 114
Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p. 43
Kissick, John. Art, Context and Criticism. Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark, 1993. Reproduced: p. 352
Cunningham, Lawrence S., and John J. Reich. Culture and Values: a Survey of the Western Humanities. Second edition. Fort Worth, IN: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1994. Reproduced: p. 282
Barratt, Carrie Rebora. John Singleton Copley in America. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, distributed by H.N. Abrams, 1995. Reproduced: p. 209
Janson, H. W. History of Art. Fifth edition. New York, NY: Prentice Hall & Harry Abrams, 1995. Reproduced: p. 42, pl. 26
Kissick, John. Art, Context and Criticism. Second edition. Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark, 1996. Reproduced: p. 382
Kane, Patricia E., Francis Hill Bigelow, John Marshall Phillips, and Jeannine J. Falino. Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers: A Biographical Dictionary Based on the Notes of Francis Hill Bigelow & John Marshall Phillips. New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 1997. Reproduced: p. 615
Rather, Susan. "Carpenter, Tailor, Shoemaker, Artist: Copley and Portrait Painting around 1770." The Art Bulletin. 79:2 (June 1997). Mentioned: p. 284-5; Reproduced: p. 285
Ohlig, Rudolf, and Hildegard Hogen. Der Glanz der Residenzen: Renaissance und Barock in Europa, Schwarzafrika und Altamerika. Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1998. Reproduced: p. 424
Ward, Gerald W. R. "Nathaniel Hurd." American National Biography, v. 2. ed. Garraty, John A., and Mark C. Carnes. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999. Mentioned; p. 556-7
Fortune, Brandon Brame, and Deborah Jean Warner. Franklin and His Friends: Portraying the Man of Science in Eighteenth-Century America. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, 1999. Reproduced: p. 62, fig. 4-14
May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Reproduced: p. 44
Kammen, Michael et al. Seeing America: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press, 2006. Reproduced: p. 22
Adams, Henry. What's American about American art?: a gallery tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008. Reproduced: p. 40 - 41
Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 44
Rather, Susan. The American School: Artists and Status in the Late-Colonial and Early National Era. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, 2016. Mentioned & Reproduced: pp. 41-42, fig. 30
Ward, Gerald W. R. Paul Revere: Sons of Liberty Bowl. Boston: MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2016. Reproduced: p. 11
Ripley, Elizabeth. Copley; A Biography. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1967. Mentioned: p. 24; Reproduced: p. 25
Exhibition history

Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, The Inaugural Exhibition (6 June-20 September, 1916); cat. p. 255.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, One Hundred Colonial Portraits (19 June-21 September 1930), cat. no. 50.

Cleveland, 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), illus. plate II, cat. no. 23, pp. 21-22.

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, An Exhibition of Paintings by John Singleton Copley: In Commemoration of the Two-Hundredth Anniversary of His Birth (22 December, 1936-14 February, 1937), illus. 16.

Baltimore, Baltimore Museum of Art, Two Hundred Years of American Painting, (15 January-28 February, 1938), no. 2.

New Haven, Yale University Gallery of Fine Arts, Masterpieces of New England Silver 1650-1800, (18 June-10 September, 1939), ill. no. 224, p. 94.

Flint, Mich., Flint Institute of Arts, Art Marches On: The Opening and Dedicating Exhibition of the New Flint Institute of Arts (14 November-31 December, 1941), illus no. 53, p. 30.

Oberlin, Ohio, The Dudley P. Allen Memorial Art Museum, The Arts in the Americas in the Eighteenth Century (1946), cat. no. 1 (see Bulletin of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, vol. III, no. 3 (May, 1946).

Dallas, The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Survey of American Painting from 1700 to the Present (5 October - 3 November 1946); cat. 200 Years of American Painting.

Denver, The Denver Art Museum, American Heritage: An Exhibitions of Paintings and Crafts 1770-1790 (7 March-11 April 1948), ill. p. 9.

Denver, The Denver Art Museum, Portraiture Through the Ages (9 January - 15 February 1950).

Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Institute, Silver and American Tradition (13 February - 19 March 1953).

Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, George Washington's World (15 January - 14 February 1954), cat. no. 5.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Colonial Silversmiths, Masters and Apprentices (13 November - 30 December 1956).

Jewett Art Center, Wellesley College, Massachusetts, Four Boston Masters (10 April-11 May, 1959), cat. no. 8, repr. p. 25; traveled to Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (19 May - 26 June 1959).

Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Style, Truth and the Portrait (1 October -10 November, 1963), ill. cat. no. 29.

New York, The Gallery at The Better Living Center, New York World's Fair, Four Centuries of American Masterpieces (22 May-18 October 1964), p. 18, illus. p. 18; (arranged by the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture).

Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, John Singleton Copley, 1738-1815 (18 September - 31 October 1965), pp. 45-9, illus. p. 47; traveled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art (20 November 1965 - 2 January 1966); traveled to Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (22 January - 6 February 1966).

Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, The Face of Liberty: Founders of the United States (23 December 1975 - 8 February 1976), illus. colorplate 16.

Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Silver in American Life (24 June - 16 August 1981); exhibited in gallery but not in catalogue.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, John Singleton Copley in America (7 June - 27 August 1995), traveled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art (26 September 1995 - 7 January 1996), traveled to Houston, Museum of Fine Arts (4 February - 28 April 1996), did not travel to Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum; cat. no. 21, p. 57, 93, 119, 208-11, 248, 300, 312.

Rochester, New York, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, ABOUT FACE: Copley's Portrait of Nathaniel Hurd, Colonial Silversmith and Engraver, (1 November 1999-1 March 2000), see Porticus journal.

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).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

Style, Truth and the Portrait. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 2-November 19, 1963).

Four Centuries of American Masterpieces. 1964 New York World's Fair, New York, NY (May 1-October 18, 1964).

John Singleton Copley: A Retrospective Exhibition. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (organizer) (September 18-October 31, 1965); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (November 20, 1965-January 2, 1966); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (January 22-March 6, 1966).

The Face of Liberty. Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX (organizer) (December 23, 1975-February 8, 1976).

John Singleton Copley's America. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (June 7-August 27, 1995); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (September 26, 1995-January 7, 1996); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (February 4-April 28, 1996).

Nathaniel Hurd. Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, NY (November 22, 1999-April 10, 2000).

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

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1915.534