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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.129
People
John Singleton Copley, American (Boston, MA 1738 - 1815 London, England)
Title
William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough (1704-1793)
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1790
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230361

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
59.1 x 48.9 cm (23 1/4 x 19 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: J. S. Copley RA/ 1790
  • inscription: on verso: Earl of Bessborough

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Claude A. C. Ponsonby, presumably by descent; sold at Christie's sale of Ponsonby Heirlooms to Sabin, March 28, 1908; purchased through Martin Birnbaum by Grenville L. Winthrop, November 1941; his bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.129
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Augustus Thorndyke Perkins, A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley, J. R. Osgood & Company (Boston, MA, 1873), p. 128
  • Frank William Bayley, The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley: Founded on the Work of Augustus Thorndike Perkins, The Taylor Press (Boston, MA, 1915), p. 199
  • Jules David Prown, John Singleton Copley, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1966), vol. 2, pp. 286n, 298, 342, 352, 412-413, pl. 590
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 238
  • Emily Ballew Neff, "The History Theater: Production and Spectatorship in Copley's 'The Death of Major Pierson'", exh. cat., ed. Emily Ballew Neff, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (London, England and Houston, TX, 1995), p. 70, fig. 48
  • Emily Ballew Neff, "John Singleton Copley: The Artist as 'Realist' and London Impresario" (1997), University of Texas at Austin, pp. 107, 273, ill.
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, Volume One: Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Artists Born before 1826, Yale University Press (U.S.) and Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge and New Haven, 2014), p. 160, cat. 101, ill.

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu