Young Lady with a Bird and a Dog

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Young Lady with a Bird and a Dog

Artist John Singleton Copley (American, 1738-1815)

Date1767

DimensionsPainting: 48 × 39 1/2 in. (121.9 × 100.3 cm)
Frame: 55 1/4 × 48 × 4 1/8 in. (140.3 × 121.9 × 10.5 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott

Object number

1950.306

Not on View

Label TextIn 1767 Boston painter John Singleton Copley painted a portrait of a well-heeled little girl to send to the Society of Artists in London for their annual exhibition. Among the trappings of Colonial Boston prosperity he included a domesticated Red-headed Lovebird, a small parrot species. Keeping birds as pets—usually local songbirds—was already well-established in both Europe and the American colonies. But as more and more European ships returning from missions of trade, exploration, and colonization brought foreign birds like canaries and parrots back home, exotic species became increasingly common features of wealthy and even middle-class homes. The particular species shown in this painting points more specifically to the source of much of Boston's wealth: chattel slavery. The Red-headed Lovebird is largely native to central and western Africa and made its way to the Americas on slave ships. Copley himself is known to have enslaved at least three people.Published ReferencesAdams, C., G. Jones, and W. Ford, eds., "Letters and Papers of John Singleton Copley and Henry Pelham 1739-1776," The Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, LXXI, 1914, pp. 52-60.

Bayley, F., Life and Works of John Singleton Copley, Boston, 1915, p. 250.

Bolton, T., and H. Binsse, "John Singleton Copley," The Antiquarian, XV, Dec. 1930, p. 80, repr. p. 82.

Parker, B., and A. Wheeler, John Singleton Copley, Boston, 1930, pp. 198-199, pl. 73.

Flexner, J., America's Old Masters, New York, 1939, p. 124, repr.

Flexner, J., First Flowers of Our Wilderness, Boston, 1947, pp. 231, 234, 236, 238, 346, repr. p. 231.

Flexner, J., John Singleton Copley, Cambridge, 1948, pp. 41-42, 54, 131, pl. 14.

Toledo Museum News, no. 130, November 1951, repr.

Myers, Bernard S., ed., Encyclopedia of Painting, New York, 1955, p. 124, repr. in color.

Richardson, E., Painting in America, New York, 1956, p. 75.

Washington, W. Selden, "Our Colonial Heritage," Toledo Museum News, New Series, vol. 2, no. 2, 1959, p. 6, repr. p. 4.

Prown, J., John Singleton Copley, 1738-1815 (exh. cat.), National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965, p. 42.

Prown, J., John Singleton Copley, Cambridge, 1966, I, pp. 31, 40n., 50, 51, 54 and n., 55, 58, 59, 81, pl. 164; II, pp. 318, 387.

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Roth, Rodris, Floor Coverings in 18th Century America (U.S. National Museum Bulletin 250), Washington, D.C., 1967, p. 36, 62, repr. (b&w) fig. 17.

Ripley, Elizabeth, Copley, A Biography, Philadelphia, 1967, p. 30, repr. (b&w) p. 31.

Young, Mahonri Sharp, "From howling wilderness to Queensborough Bridge," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 496, repr. (b&w) fig. 5, p. 497.

Morse, John D., "Toledo, Ohio: Museum of Art," McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Art, New York, 1969, vol. 5, p. 330.

Frankenstein, A., The World of Copley 1738-1815, New York, 1970, p. 62, repr.

Bishop, Robert, Centuries and styles of the American chair 1640-1970, New York, 1972, repr. p. 167.

Kammen, Michael, People of Paradox, New York, 1972, repr. no. 11.

Frankenstein, Alfred, "American paintings by John Singleton Copley, exhibition review," American Art Review, vol. 2, no. 6, Nov.-Dec. 1975, p. 147, repr. (col.) p. 146.

"About the cover...," The Toledo Club News, Bicentennial 1976, p. 1, repr. (col.), on cover.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 74.

Andrus, L., Measure and Design in American Painting, New York, 1977, pp. 106-107, fig. 36 (Garland reprint, Ph.D. dissertation, Columiba University, 1976).

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, pp. 36-37, pl. 4, color pl. 1.

Strickler, Susan E., "American Painting at the Toledo Museum of Art," Antiques, vol. 116, no. 5, Nov. 1979, p. 1110, 1117, repr. (col.) pl. II.

Mayhew, Edgar, A Documentary History of American Interiors, New York, 1980, p. 50, repr.

Montgomery, Florence M., Textiles in America 1650-1670, New York, 1983, p. 107, 108, fig. 17.

Forrest, Michael, "Portraits of Love," Pure-bred Dogs/American Kennel Gazette, vol. 104, no. 9, Sept. 1987, p. 40, repr.

British Painting, London, Leger, Galleries, 1989, p. 136, fig. 113.

Please Be Seated, Wethersfield, CT, 1993, p. 15, fig. 6, p. 17. (not in exh.)

Flexner, James Thomas, John Singleton Copley, 2nd ed. New York, 1993, p. 41-42, 54, 131, pl. 19.

Rebora, Carrie, et. al, John Singleton Copley in America, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995, no. 38, pp. 238, 240, repr. (col.).

Rebora, Carrie, "Transforming Colonists into Goddesses and Sultans," American Art Journal, vol. 27, nos. 1 and 2, 1995-1996, p. 9, 35, no. 14, fig. 5, p. 10.

Kaye, Myrnz, There's a Bed in the Piano: The Inside Story of the American Home, Boston, 1998, p. 64, 66, fig. 3.8.

Prown, Jules David, Art as Evidence: Writings on Art and Material Culture, New Haven, Yale, 2001, pp. 141, 143-144, 148, fig. 8.8, p. 142.

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2005, p. 29, repr. (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 208, repr. (col.).

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2009, p. 29, repr. (col.)

Roberts, Jennifer, L., "Failure to Deliver: Watson and the Shark and the Boston Tea Party," Art History, vol. 34, no. 4, 2011, p. 682-683, plate 7. repr. (col.).

Roberts, Jennifer L., Transporting Visions: the Movement of Images in Early America, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2014, p. 44, repr. p. 45 (fig. 14).

Manca, Joseph, "C. Peale Painted This in London in 1768': Sources, Beauty, and Likeness in Boy with a Toy Horse," American Art , vol. 29, no. 3, Fall 2015, p. 92, repr. (col.) fig. 4, p. 93.

Kamensky, Jane, A Revolution in Color: the World of John Singleton Copley, New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2016, p.119-122, repr. p. 120.

Reich, Paula, Rare and Wondrous: Birds in Art and Culture, 1620-1820, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 2021, p.50-51 [exh. catalogue].

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Society of Artists of Great Britain, 1767, no. 28 (as Portrait of a Young Lady with a Bird and Dog; whole length; by William Copeley (sic)).

New York, Blakeslee Galleries, Two Famous Portraits by John Singleton Copley, 1910, n. p. (as Mary Warner).

Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Painting in America, 1957, no. 29, repr.

New York, Hirschl and Adler, American Portraits by John Singleton Copley, 1975, no. 28, repr.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts; Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum, John Singleton Copley in America, 1995-1996, no. 38.