Young Lady with a Bird and a Dog
Artist: John Singleton Copley (American, 1738-1815)
Date: 1767
Dimensions:
Painting: 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)
Medium: oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott
Object number: 1950.306
Label Text:In 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.
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.
On view
In Collection(s)