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Identification and Creation

Object Number
H19
People
John Singleton Copley, American (Boston, MA 1738 - 1815 London, England)
Nathaniel Appleton (1693 - 1784)
Title
Nathaniel Appleton (1693-1784)
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1759-1761
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States, Massachusetts
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/299945

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
90.5 x 74.9 cm (35 5/8 x 29 1/2 in.)
framed: 102.6 x 87.3 x 3.8 cm (40 3/8 x 34 3/8 x 1 1/2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: reverse side of canvas: NATHANIEL APPLETON DD CAMBRIDGE/BORN 1693 AT. IPSWITCH. AMERICA/PORTRAITED. 1764/DIED 1784/Copley pinxt Native of Boston/America
  • inscription: spine of book upon which Appleton's right hand rests, in artist's hand: Orth/&/Char.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Descended to the sitter's son, John Appleton (1739-1817); descended through family to John James Appleton; his loan to Harvard College, 1855.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard University Portrait Collection, Loan from John James Appleton to Harvard College, 1855.
Object Number
H19
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Henry T. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists: American Artist Life, Comprising Biographical and Critical Sketches of American Artists, Preceded by an Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of Art in America, Putnam (New York, NY, 1867), p. 72
  • 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. 31
  • William Garrott Brown, A List of Portraits in the Various Buildings of Harvard University, Harvard University Library (Cambridge, MA, 1898), p. 6
  • Frank William Bayley, A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley, The Garden Press, W. B. Libby (Boston, MA, 1910), p. 10
  • 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. 45
  • Cuthbert Lee, Early American Portrait Painters: The Fourteen Principal Earliest Native-born Painters, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT, 1929), p. 74
  • Frank William Bayley, Five Colonial Artists of New England: Joseph Badger, Joseph Blackburn, John Singleton Copley, Robert Feke, John Smibert, Southworth Press (Boston, 1929), p. 157, ill.
  • Theodore Bolton and Henry Lorin Binsse, "John Singleton Copley", The Antiquarian (New York, NY, December 1930), pp. 116-118., p. 116
  • Laura M. Huntsinger, Harvard Portraits: A Catalogue of Portrait Paintings at Harvard University, ed. Alan Burroughs, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1936), p. 14
  • Alan Burroughs, "Seeing the Shows: Copley at Boston", Magazine of Art (March 1938), vol. 31, 164-166, p. 166
  • Barbara N. Parker and Anne Bolling Wheeler, John Singleton Copley: American Portraits in Oil, Pastel and Miniature, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1938), pp. 25-26, pl. 22
  • Historical Records Survey, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Works Progress Administration, American Portraits, 1620-1825, found in Massachusetts, Volumes 1 and 2, Historical Records Survey (Boston, MA, 1939), p. 15, cat. 71
  • Fogg Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum Annual Report, 1939-1940 (Cambridge, MA, 1941), p. 19
  • Virgil Barker, American Painting: History and Interpretation, The Macmillan Company (New York, 1950), p. 134
  • Louisa Dresser, "Edward Savage, Painter 1761-1817", Art In America (1952), vol. XL, no. 4, p. 166
  • Jules David Prown, John Singleton Copley, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1966), vol. 1, pp. 34, 37-38, 102, 207, pl. 94
  • Linda Ayres, Harvard Divided, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1976), pp. 142-143, cat. 82, ill.
  • Leigh Keno and Leslie Keno, Hidden Treasures: Searching for Masterpieces of American Furniture, Warner Books (New York, NY, 2000), pp. 263-64, ill. p. 263
  • 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), pp. 129-130, cat. 80, ill.

Exhibition History

  • Harvard Divided, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/03/1976 - 10/10/1976

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