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Painting, three-quarter length portrait of John Codman, III (1755-1803). The sitter is wearing a black jacket and white ruffled neckcloth. He is standing in front of a red damask curtain with a distant landscape visible in the lower left. Oil on canvas. Gilt frame.
paintings (visual works)
portraits
oil paint (paint)
canvas
Picture
Portrait
Portrait
"Artful Stories": Copley was Americas leading portraitist before the American Revolution. In 1774, he moved to London and embraced historical subjects for their prestige, yet continued to earn his living painting portraits. He was the obvious choice to paint John Codman III of Boston, having already portrayed Codmans father and brother. Copley created this flattering likeness of the prosperous merchant in the English port of Torquay. The hilly landscape and white house do not resemble Torquay, so perhaps they are Copleys idealization of the Codman Estate in Lincoln, Massachusetts, now an Historic New England property, which he once visited in the 1760s.
Codman, John, 1755-1803
Associated With Codman House (Lincoln, Mass.),
3.1987
1580.1
Copley, John Singleton (American painter, 1738-1815) (Artist)
Torquay, England
45 1/2 x 37 1/2 x 3 (HxWxD) (inches)
Museum Purchase
2016.62.1
Torquay (Torbay, Devon, England, United Kingdom)
Massachusetts (United States)
Torquay (Torbay, Devon, England, United Kingdom)
Title Frame Accession Number 2016.62.1B
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