Henry Hill

Description

In 2006 the Art Institute of Chicago was lucky enough to acquire John Singleton Copley's pastel Henry Hill, the companion to Mrs. Henry Hill (Anna Barrett) (1959.511) which has been in the collection since 1959. Both pastels retain their original Rococo-style frames. They may have been carved by the Boston cratsman John Welch, who created many of Copley's Rococo frames, the type the artist used most frequently for his American portraits. The frame on Mrs. Henry Hill was gilded, as this was generally appropriate for the Rococo style; however, recent scholarship has revealed that a few Copley frames, like that of Henry Hill, were painted black. Thus, these portraits present two different ways that Copley's frames might have been finished.

Provenance

Henry and Anna Hill, Boston, about 1770 to 1828; by descent to their nephew, Thomas Hill, Boston, after 1828; Mrs. Todd, Cambridge, MA, by 1873; by descent in the Hill family to W. Eliot Fette, Cambridge, MA, before 1938; by descent to his daughter, Margaret Atherton Noyes, Cambridge, MA, 1938; by descent to her son, Eliot Fette Noyes, New Canaan, CT; bequeathed to his wife, Mrs. Eliot Fette Noyes, New Canaan, CT, to 2006; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2006.

Henry Hill

John Singleton Copley

c. 1765–70

Accession Number

187051

Medium

Pastel on brown paper laid down on canvas, linen, or board

Dimensions

61 × 45.7 cm (24 × 18 in.); Sight: 58 × 43.3 cm (22 7/8 × 17 1/16 in.)

Classification

pastel

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Roger and J. Peter McCormick Endowments; purchased with funds provided by William C. Vance from the Vance Family Foundation; Maurice D. Galleher Endowment and General Acquisitions funds