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It is Spooner’s face, however, that arrests the viewer’s attention. He regards us with the hint of a knowing smile and a barely detectable gleam in his eye. Copley makes no attempt to camouflage flaws, such as the slight indentation on the sitter’s right cheek. Indeed, it was this faithful attention to detail that made Copley so popular with the pragmatic colonists, who disdained flattery. A shadow of stubble is evident on Spooner’s face; it is almost as if Copley is suggesting that the successful merchant is so diligent in his attention to his business that he simply has not had time to shave.
John Spooner married into the wealthy and influential Oliver family when he married his second wife Margaret Oliver in 1762. He also married into a family with whom he was politically sympathetic; both Spooner and the Olivers were Tories, or loyal to the British crown. Revolution-minded colonists attacked members of the Oliver family in 1765; Spooner tolerated the increasingly hostile environment for three more years but fled the colonies for London with his wife and children in 1768. He died less than a year later (Eldredge, Millhouse, and Workman, p. 26).
This portrait of John Spooner was owned by descendants of the sitter into the twentieth century; it came into Reynolda’s collection through Hirschl and Adler Gallery in 1968. The frame is also notable; it is original to the painting and is the earliest known example of a carved and gilded Rococo frame of the sort that Copley used for only 32 known paintings (Rebora, Carrie, Paul Staiti, Erica Hirshler, Theodore E. Stebbins, and Carol Troyen. John Singleton Copley in America. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, distributed by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995, p. 151).
ProvenanceBy 1911 to 1913
Lucy Reed (Spooner) Pettee (born 1868), Boston MA. [1]
1914
Mrs. Thayer. [2]
From 1914 to 1930s
Philip L. Spalding (1871-1938) and Katherine (Ames) Spalding (born c. 1875), Milton MA. [3]
To 1968
Hobart A. Spalding (1911-1997), Washington DC. [4]
1968
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY. [5]
From 1968 to 1985
Nancy Reynolds (1910-1985), Greenwich CT, purchased from Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY on March 30, 1968. [6]
From 1985
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC, bequest of Nancy Susan Reynolds March 13, 1985. [7]
Notes:
[1] Remick Museum documentation, copy in Object file. Also Joan Durana, provenance research, 1983. Descendant of the sitter.
[2] Joan Durana, provenance research, 1983. Relative of Lucy Pettee.
[3] See note 2. Also Remick Museum documentation, copy in Object file. Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Bill of sale, Object file.
[4] See note 2. Son of Philip and Katherine Spalding, executor of their estate.
[5] Bill of sale, Object file.
[6] See note 5.
[7] Release form for bequest items, copy in Object file.
Exhibition History1911-1912
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston MA
Lent by Lucy R. Pettee
1930
One Hundred Colonial Portraits
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston MA (1930)
Lent by Philip L. Spalding and Katherine A. Spalding
1950-1968
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston MA (1950-1968)
Lent by the Executors of the Estate of Katherine A. Spaulding
‘On Deposit’
1968
Twenty-Five American Masterpieces
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY (1968)
Cat. No. 2
1971
Reynolda House American Paintings
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY (1/13/1971-1/31/1971)
Cat. No. 3
For the benefit of the Smith College Scholarship Fund
1986
Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winston-Salem NC (4/4/1986-4/8/1986)
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House Museum Of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
2005
Vanguard Collecting: American Art at Reynolda House
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (4/1/2005-8/21/2005)
2006
Self/Image: Portraiture from Copley to Close
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (8/30/2006-12/31/2006)
2008-2009
Early American Portraits
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (5/13/2008-3/16/2009)
2017
Samuel F.B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (02/17/2017 - 06/04/2017)
Published ReferencesParker, B.N. & A.B. Wheeler, John Singleton Copley--American Portraits. (1938): 187, illus. 188.
Prown, J.D., John Singleton Copley. (1966): I, 37, 229, pl.113.
LaFarge, H.A., "The Rediscovery of America, 2" Art News LXVII (May 1968): illus. 34.
Lassiter, Barbara B. Reynolda House American Paintings. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Inc., 1971: 8, illus. 9.
Millhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 26-7.
Rebora, Carrie et. al. John Singleton Copley In America. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995: 151, 156.
Schiller, Joyce K. Reading Portraits Through Buttons And Bows. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Museum of American Art, 2001: 10-11.
Bolton, T. & Binesse, H.L. "John Singleton Copley" The Antiquarian. XV (December 1930): 118.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 116, 117
DepartmentAmerican Art
John Spooner
Artist
John Singleton Copley
(1738 - 1815)
Date1763
Mediumoil on canvas
DimensionsFrame (unverified): 37 1/4 × 32 1/4 in. (94.6 × 81.9 cm)
Image (unverified): 30 × 25 3/4 in. (76.2 × 65.4 cm)
SignedJ. S. Copley Pinx 1763
Credit LineBequest of Nancy Susan Reynolds
CopyrightPublic domain
Object number1968.2.1
DescriptionJohn Singleton Copley’s painting of merchant John Spooner from 1763 is somewhat unusual for its size and format. Most of his paintings of gentlemen were three-quarter length—the half size suggests that this was a minor commission. Nevertheless, Copley manages to impart a sense of elegance to his subject with the oval format and the finely-rendered details of dress. Spooner is dressed in a gray-green coat with covered buttons and gold trim. Copley creates the delicate cravat at his throat with just a few well-placed brushstrokes of white paint. Spooner’s powdered wig is swept back in a fashionable wave, and his waistcoat is unbuttoned to allow him to slip his hand through the opening to affect a gesture that was considered genteel and refined (Eldredge, Charles C., Barbara Babcock Millhouse, and Robert G. Workman. American Originals: Selections from Reynolda House, Museum of American Art. New York: Abbeville Press, 1990, p. 26). Scholars have pointed out that Copley gave Spooner’s shoulders an exaggerated slope, perhaps to emphasize his status as a gentleman instead of a broad-shouldered laborer.It is Spooner’s face, however, that arrests the viewer’s attention. He regards us with the hint of a knowing smile and a barely detectable gleam in his eye. Copley makes no attempt to camouflage flaws, such as the slight indentation on the sitter’s right cheek. Indeed, it was this faithful attention to detail that made Copley so popular with the pragmatic colonists, who disdained flattery. A shadow of stubble is evident on Spooner’s face; it is almost as if Copley is suggesting that the successful merchant is so diligent in his attention to his business that he simply has not had time to shave.
John Spooner married into the wealthy and influential Oliver family when he married his second wife Margaret Oliver in 1762. He also married into a family with whom he was politically sympathetic; both Spooner and the Olivers were Tories, or loyal to the British crown. Revolution-minded colonists attacked members of the Oliver family in 1765; Spooner tolerated the increasingly hostile environment for three more years but fled the colonies for London with his wife and children in 1768. He died less than a year later (Eldredge, Millhouse, and Workman, p. 26).
This portrait of John Spooner was owned by descendants of the sitter into the twentieth century; it came into Reynolda’s collection through Hirschl and Adler Gallery in 1968. The frame is also notable; it is original to the painting and is the earliest known example of a carved and gilded Rococo frame of the sort that Copley used for only 32 known paintings (Rebora, Carrie, Paul Staiti, Erica Hirshler, Theodore E. Stebbins, and Carol Troyen. John Singleton Copley in America. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, distributed by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995, p. 151).
ProvenanceBy 1911 to 1913
Lucy Reed (Spooner) Pettee (born 1868), Boston MA. [1]
1914
Mrs. Thayer. [2]
From 1914 to 1930s
Philip L. Spalding (1871-1938) and Katherine (Ames) Spalding (born c. 1875), Milton MA. [3]
To 1968
Hobart A. Spalding (1911-1997), Washington DC. [4]
1968
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY. [5]
From 1968 to 1985
Nancy Reynolds (1910-1985), Greenwich CT, purchased from Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY on March 30, 1968. [6]
From 1985
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC, bequest of Nancy Susan Reynolds March 13, 1985. [7]
Notes:
[1] Remick Museum documentation, copy in Object file. Also Joan Durana, provenance research, 1983. Descendant of the sitter.
[2] Joan Durana, provenance research, 1983. Relative of Lucy Pettee.
[3] See note 2. Also Remick Museum documentation, copy in Object file. Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Bill of sale, Object file.
[4] See note 2. Son of Philip and Katherine Spalding, executor of their estate.
[5] Bill of sale, Object file.
[6] See note 5.
[7] Release form for bequest items, copy in Object file.
Exhibition History1911-1912
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston MA
Lent by Lucy R. Pettee
1930
One Hundred Colonial Portraits
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston MA (1930)
Lent by Philip L. Spalding and Katherine A. Spalding
1950-1968
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston MA (1950-1968)
Lent by the Executors of the Estate of Katherine A. Spaulding
‘On Deposit’
1968
Twenty-Five American Masterpieces
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY (1968)
Cat. No. 2
1971
Reynolda House American Paintings
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY (1/13/1971-1/31/1971)
Cat. No. 3
For the benefit of the Smith College Scholarship Fund
1986
Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winston-Salem NC (4/4/1986-4/8/1986)
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House Museum Of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
2005
Vanguard Collecting: American Art at Reynolda House
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (4/1/2005-8/21/2005)
2006
Self/Image: Portraiture from Copley to Close
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (8/30/2006-12/31/2006)
2008-2009
Early American Portraits
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (5/13/2008-3/16/2009)
2017
Samuel F.B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (02/17/2017 - 06/04/2017)
Published ReferencesParker, B.N. & A.B. Wheeler, John Singleton Copley--American Portraits. (1938): 187, illus. 188.
Prown, J.D., John Singleton Copley. (1966): I, 37, 229, pl.113.
LaFarge, H.A., "The Rediscovery of America, 2" Art News LXVII (May 1968): illus. 34.
Lassiter, Barbara B. Reynolda House American Paintings. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Inc., 1971: 8, illus. 9.
Millhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 26-7.
Rebora, Carrie et. al. John Singleton Copley In America. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995: 151, 156.
Schiller, Joyce K. Reading Portraits Through Buttons And Bows. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Museum of American Art, 2001: 10-11.
Bolton, T. & Binesse, H.L. "John Singleton Copley" The Antiquarian. XV (December 1930): 118.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 116, 117
Status
On viewCollections