Sir William Pepperrell (1746–1816) and His Family
Artist
John Singleton Copley
American, 1738–1815, active in Great Britain 1774–1815
Date1778
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions90 x 108 in. (228.6 x 274.3 cm)
Frame: 103 1/2 x 121 3/4 in. (262.9 x 309.2 cm)
Frame: 103 1/2 x 121 3/4 in. (262.9 x 309.2 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina
Object number52.9.8
On View
On view[review], The General Advertiser (London), [April?] 1778, quoted in John Singleton Copley in England, pp. 100, 102, n.12.
[Letter to the editor], The General Advertiser [April?] 1778, quoted in John Singleton Copley in England, pp. 99–100, n.9.
Martha Babcock Amory, The Domestic and Artistic Life of John Singleton Copley, R.A. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Co., 1882), noted 206.
Edward Walford, Chapters from Family Chests, Vol. 1 (London: Hurst and Blackett, 1887), mentioned 34–35.
Cecil Hampden Cutts Howard, "The Pepperrell Portraits," Historical Collections of the Essex Institute 31 (1894–95), 54–65, noted 61–62 (as owned by Sir Archdale Palmer of Wanlip Hall, Leicestershire).
Frank W. Bayley, The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley (Boston: Taylor Press, 1915), 194.
"A Famous Copley Shown in London," Art News 32 (May 19, 1934), 5, illus. (b-w) cover.
Helen Comstock, "Drawings by J. S. Copley in the Karolik Collection," Connoisseur 109 (June 1942), 150–153, mentioned (in conjunction with a discussion of a preparatory drawing, illus. no. 2) 152.
(gallery advertisement), Art News 5 (Summer 1952), illus. (b-w) 13.
Richard S. Davis, "Loan Exhibition of Great Portraits Sponsored by Friends of the Institute," Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin 41 (November 1, 1952), 150–155, discussed 152, illus. (b-w) 155.
William R. Valentiner, "The Raleigh Museum's First 220 Paintings: Notes on the Collection," Art News 55 (April 1956), 46–55, 91–92, noted 55, illus. (b-w) 47.
W. R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), no. 9, illus. (b-w).
"What a Million Dollars Buys in Good Paintings," Life 41 (December 10, 1956), illus. (color) 73.
Anna Wells Rutledge, "American Loyalists--A Drawing for a Noted Copley Group," Art Quarterly 20 (Summer 1957), 195–203, illus. (b-w) fig. 1.
Carolina Charter Tercentenary Exhibition (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1963), cat. no. 9, illus. (b-w).
Hasse Wahrby, "Museer i USA," Jeckning 32 (1961), 151–153, discussed 153, illus. (b-w).
"Biennial Report of the Director: Restoration," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 6, no. 4, and 7, no. 1 (1966/67?), 16.
Jules David Prown, John Singleton Copley, 2 Vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press for the National Gallery of Art, 1966), discussed Vol. 2, 264–267; noted 315, 318, 363; listed in cat. p. 428; illus. (b-w) fig. 356 (see also preparatory studies figs. 357–361).
American Paintings to 1900: Catalogue of Paintings, Vol. 1, 2nd ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1966), no. 11, illus. (color).
Stella Suberman, "North Carolina Museum of Art Monthly Tour," We the People of North Carolina 24 (June 1966), 26, illus. (b-w).
Charles W. Stanford, Masterpieces in the North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1966), no. 2, illus. (color).
Joseph C. Sloane, "A Museum is Like an Iceberg," North Carolina Architect 14 (May-June 1967), illus. (b-w) 33.
Charles W. Stanford, Jr., Selections from British and American Painting and Sculpture (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1967), no. 17, illus.(color).
Monroe Stearns, The Story of New England (New York: Random House, 1967), illus. (b-w) 65.
North Carolina Architect, 20th Anniversary North Carolina Museum of Art 1947-1967 (Raleigh, NC: The North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 1967) 33. Artwork included without mention in writing.
Mario Praz, Conversation Pieces: A Survey of the Informal Group Portrait in Europe and America (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971), discussed 113, 116, illus. (b-w) fig. 77.
Gladys N. Hoover, The Elegant Royalls of Colonial New England (New York: Vantage Press, 1974), discussed 89, illus. (color).
Marshall B. Davidson et al., The Horizon History of the World in 1776 (New York: American Heritage Publishing Co., 1975), illus. (b-w) 319.
Thomas C. Parramore, Carolina Quest (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1978), illus. (color) 476.
Michael Quick, et al., American Portraiture in the Grand Manner, 1720–1920 (exhibition catalogue) (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1981), discussed 101, illus. (color) fig. 16, detail illus. (color) cover.
Christopher Knight, "Illusions of Grandeur," [review of American Portraiture in the Grand Manner] Los Angeles Herald Examiner (November 29, 1981).
Virginia Browne-Wilkinson, Pepperrell Posterity (Florence, Italy: privately printed, 1982), 126, illus. (b-w) pl. 15.
Paul Richard, "Strokes of Luxe: The Portrait Gallery Surveys the Rich & Famous," [review of American Portraiture in the Grand Manner] The Washington Post (March 19, 1982), mentioned F6.
Phil Patton, "North Carolina's Museum with a 'Checkered History,'" Art News 81 (October 1982), 84–88, illus. (color) 87.
Michael Matros and Bill Finger, "The North Carolina Museum of Art at a Crossroads," N. C. Insight 5 (February 1983), illus. (b-w) 28.
Neil Rolde, Sir William Pepperrell of Colonial New England ([Brunswick, ME]: Harpswell Press, 1983).
Howard C. Jones, “W. R. Hearst and St. Donat’s,” in The Story of St. Donat’s Castle and Atlantic College, Roy Denning, ed. (Cowbridge: D. Brown and Sons Ltd., 1983), illus. (b-w) 81, fig. 42, as installed in St. Donat’s.
Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill, published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (color) 18.
Margaretta M. Lovell, "Reading Eighteenth-Century American Family Portraits," Winterthur Portfolio 22 (Winter 1987), 243–264, discussed 252, 254, illus. (b-w) fig. 13.
Margaretta M. Lovell, "To be 'Conspecuous in the Croud': John Singleton Copley's Sir William Pepperrell and His Family," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 14 (1991), 29–42, illus. (color) fig. 1.
Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (color) 219.
Christopher Knight, Last Chance for Eden: Selected Art Criticism by Christopher Knight, 1979–1994, Malin Wilson, ed. (Los Angeles: Art issues. Press, 1995), discussed in reprint of review of exhibition
American Portraiture in the Grand Manner, 236–237, illus. (b-w) 236.
Carrie Rebora & Paul Staiti, John Singleton Copley in America (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995), noted 19, illus. (color) fig. 11.
[John W. Coffey], "The Pepperrell Family Portrait," North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Summer 1995), 14, illus. (b-w).
Emily Ballew Neff, John Singleton Copley in England (exhibition catalogue) (London: Published for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, by Merrell Holberton Publishers, Ltd., 1995), cat. no. 3, discussed 98–102, illus. (color) 101
Stephen May, "John Singleton Copley," Antiques and the Arts Weekly (15 December 1995), 1, 68–72, noted 70, illus. (b-w) 68.
Emily Ballew Neff, "John Singleton Copley's 'Native Realism' & his English 'Improvement'," American Art Review 8 (February–March 1996), illus. (color) 85.
Brian Allen, "John Singleton Copley in Britain and America," Apollo 143 (March 1996), 54–55, briefly discussed 55.
John W. Coffey, entry for Sir William Pepperrell and His Family, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 191–92, illus. (color) 191.
Scott Schaefer, "The Realization of a Dream," Sotheby's Preview (January 1999), illus. (color) 34.
Roy Strong, The Spirit of Britain (London: Hutchinson, 1999), illus. (color) 435.
Margaretta M. Lovell, “Bodies of Illusion: Portraits, People, and the Construction of Memory,” in Possible Pasts: Becoming Colonial in Early America, Robert Blair St. George, ed. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 2000), mentioned 297, illus. (b-w) 298, fig. 13.14.
M. Therese Southgate, M.D., "The Cover," JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 287, no. 22 (June 12, 2002), discussed 2909, illus. (color) 2903 and cover.
Margaretta M. Lovell, Art in a Season of Revolution (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), discussed 168–175, 177–183, mentioned 141, 146, 269, illus. (color) pl. IV.
Kate Retford, The Art of Domestic Life: Family Portraiture in Eighteenth-century England (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006), 1, 13, 115–16, 117, 127, 129–30, 141, 148, 234, illus. (color) 3, fig. 2, detail (color) facing p. 1.
Karen C. Kelly, “Kings, Comedians, and Captains of Industry: Trails of Art Ownership,” in Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (Spring 2008), briefly discussed 11.
Mary L. Levkoff, Hearst: The Collector (exhibition catalogue) (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2008), mentioned 22, 99, illus (color) 93, and illus. in situ at Saint Donat’s Castle (b-w) 92 (catalogue only, not in exhibition).
Carrie Rebora Borratt, “Inventing American Stories, 1765–1830,” in American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765–1915 (exhibition catalogue), H. Barbara Weinberg and Carrie Rebora Barratt, eds. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009), briefly discussed 11, illus. (color) 10, fig. 9 (catalogue only, not in exhibition).
“Highlights of the American Collection,” in North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Spring 2009), discussed 8–9, illus. (color) 9.
Kate Retford, “A Death in the Family: Posthumous Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century England,” in Art History 33, no. 1 (February 2010), discussed 76–78, illus. 77, fig. 2.
John W. Coffey, entry for Sir William Pepperrell (1746–1816) and His Family, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 394–95, illus. (color) 397, detail (color) 396.
Joanne Bailey, “Family Relationships,” in In the Age of Enlightenment: A Cultural History of Childhood and Family, Vol. 4, Elizabeth Foyster and James Marteen, eds. (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2010), briefly discussed 21, illus. (b-w) 23, fig. 1.2.
Sébastien Allard, Nadeije Laneyrie-Dagen, and Emmanuel Pernoud, L’Enfant dans la peinture (Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2011), 199–200, illus. (color) 199, fig. 169.
Mark Hallett, Reynolds: Portraiture in Action (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2014), briefly discussed and illus. (color) 337.
British Art (London: Lowell Libson Ltd, 2015), 39–43, illus. (color) 40.
Wendy Bellion, “Land Shark: Copley’s Reiterative Acts of Representation,” in American Art 30, no. 2 (Summer 2016), discussed 5–6, illus. (color) 5.
Exhibition HistoryLondon, Royal Academy, 1778, no. 63 (as A family; whole length).
London, Chesterfield House, "A Loan Exhibition Depicting Children Throughout the Ages," April–May 1934, no. 413 (as A Family Group, lent by Messrs. J. Rochelle Thomas).
New York, NY, Scott and Fowles, [?]–June 15, 1952.
Minneapolis, MN, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, "Great Portraits by Famous Painters," November 13–December 21, 1952, no. 26.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Carolina Charter Tercentenary Exhibition," March 23–April 28, 1963, cat. no. 9, illus. (b-w).
Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, "John Singleton Copley, 1738–1815," September 18–October 31, 1965; New York, NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 20, 1965–January 2, 1966; Boston, MA, Museum of Fine Arts, January 22–March 6, 1966, no. 66, illus. (b-w).
Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, "American Portraiture in the Grand Manner, 1720–1920," November 12, 1981–January 31, 1982, no. 16, illus. (color).
Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, John Singleton Copley in England, October 11, 1995–January 7, 1996; Houston, TX, Museum of Fine Arts, February 4–April 28, 1996, no. 3, discussed 98–102, illus. (color) 101.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, Highlights of the American Collection, February 15–August 2, 2009.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present.
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