GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Woodbury Langdon, a rich merchant in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, married Sarah Sherburne in 1765 and two years later commissioned both this portrait and a portrait of his wife from John Singleton Copley. By then the most fashionable artist in the colonies, Copley had a masterful touch with the rendering of textures. Although he was largely self-taught, under his brush oil paint became hair, flesh, and fabric, as is readily apparent in this pair of portraits. Langdon’s hat, tucked under his arm follows18th-century rules of etiquette indicating an easy gentility. John Singleton Copley's inclusion of a large ornate urn and elaborate curtain are in the tradition of English grand manner portraiture. However, his attention to the individual personality of his sitter is new for portraiture in a country that is beginning to pride itself on being "American." Copley is able to fulfill his patron's desire to be elegantly portrayed in a manner that confirms his refinement and high moral character and to capture his distinctive personality as a businessman.
Copley left Boston on the eve of the American Revolution (his father-in-law was the merchant whose shipments were destroyed during the Boston Tea Party). After travel in Italy, he settled in London, where, with encouragement from expatriate artist Benjamin West, he attained an international reputation. In the new United States, the Langdons prospered; Sarah bore ten children and Woodbury obtained high political and judicial offices.
Adapted from
- Bonnie Pitman, ed., Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 172.
- DMA unpublished material
NOTES
Copley, John Singleton (American, 1738-1815)
Related Object: 1996.70.2 John Singleton Copley, Sarah Sherburne Langdon
John Singleton Copley is America's first old master. Primarily self-taught, he was unparalleled in his ability to capture likenesses. Copley fulfilled his patron's desires to be elegantly portrayed in visual biographies that confirmed refinement and high moral character. By 1752 he was the leading portrait painter in Boston. To celebrate their recent marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Woodbury Langdon commissioned Copley to paint their likenesses, knowing he would amplify their youthful good looks. The portraits served as centerpieces of the Langdons' newly decorated and extravagant home.
Woodbury Langdon was one of the wealthiest merchants in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His wine-colored coat and green satin waistcoat with braided gold trim confirm this status. He holds a document to indicate the seriousness of his business affairs. The leaning pose and hat tucked under his arm follow eighteenth-century rules of etiquette, which dictated that a gentleman's posture should have an easy gentility, avoiding stiffness or slovenliness. Mr. Langdon, described as shrewd, arrogant and often sarcastic, projects defiant self confidence as he looks directly at the viewer. Sarah Sherburne Langdon is presented as a woman of charm and elegance, suggesting . warmth, vulnerability and a youthful naivete. To eighteenth-century viewers, her bouquet of cultivated flowers symbolized discipline, handiwork, and thus character.
While there was a strong trend towards greater simplicity in women's informal costume in the 1760s, Copley most likely composed Sarah Langdon's uncorseted white satin gown and green robe with iridescent lavender lining to compliment her husband's attire. Copley concocted the backdrops of these pictures. The pedestal supporting the large, ornate urn behind Mr. Langdon and the curtain and romantic garden in Sarah Langdon's backdrop were conventions that Copley adopted from fashionable English portraiture. In these and all his portraits, Copley staged presentations of character and class, but he incisively interpreted his sitters' personalities. In this way, he conveyed the increasingly self-confident image of colonists who, while retaining strong links with Great Britain, were creating a national culture.
Excerpt from
Gail Davitt, "American Portraiture," DMA Research document, Education Files, n.d.
--------
JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY
The precisely characterized Colonial portraits by the most popular Boston artist of his day, John Singleton Copley, are among our best and most faithful documents of early American society. Copley was fortunate in being born in a period when the austerity of early New England had been softened by the prosperity of the shipping trade. Bostonians had been seeing paintings for more than a generation. The mercantile aristocracy, whom Copley was to paint, could afford the elegance of the British courts. In 1774 Copley left American to escape the impending revolution and went to London where he carried on his already established type of fashionable portraiture. Although it is generally conceded that Copley gained greater fluidity and technical skill in his English portraits, they cannot excel the earlier truthful renderings of handsomely dressed Boston burghers.
From Famous American Paintings assembled for the State Fair of TX, 1948, exh cat from Piction
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Copley, John Singleton (American, 1738-1815)
Cultures
Geography
Place of origin: Portsmouth (New Hampshire/United States): TGN: 7014275
Place of origin: Boston (Massachusetts/United States): TGN: 7013445
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
From 1996: Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund [1]
[1] Works of art given or purchased by The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., a non-profit organization, are placed in the custody of the DMA for the purpose of public display on the premises of the Museum or in other recognized art galleries or museum. The title to all works of art purchased (or otherwise acquired) by the McDermott Art Fund remains with the Fund.
AUDIO ASSETS
UMO: 264294489 Learn about John Singleton Copley
UMO: 44997745 (This is the same as the above, so didn't tag)
UMO: 12936902 (Cannot get this video to work, so did not tag it)
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WEB RESOURCES
- JohnSingletonCopley.org~Learn more about John Singleton Copley and view his complete works.
- Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History~Read a biography of John Singleton Copley from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- The Revolutionary Art of John Singleton Copley~Watch this video from the Chicago Humanities Festival where Harvard professor Jane Kamensky discusses the life and works of John Singleton Copley.
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Apply to objects where number equals 1996.70.1.McD
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General Description
Woodbury Langdon, a rich merchant in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, married Sarah Sherburne in 1765 and two years later commissioned both this portrait and a portrait of his wife from John Singleton Copley. By then the most fashionable artist in the colonies, Copley had a masterful touch with the rendering of textures. Although he was largely self-taught, under his brush oil paint became hair, flesh, and fabric, as is readily apparent in this pair of portraits. Langdon’s hat, tucked under his arm follows18th-century rules of etiquette indicating an easy gentility. John Singleton Copley's inclusion of a large ornate urn and elaborate curtain are in the tradition of English grand manner portraiture. However, his attention to the individual personality of his sitter is new for portraiture in a country that is beginning to pride itself on being "American." Copley is able to fulfill his patron's desire to be elegantly portrayed in a manner that confirms his refinement and high moral character and to capture his distinctive personality as a businessman.
Copley left Boston on the eve of the American Revolution (his father-in-law was the merchant whose shipments were destroyed during the Boston Tea Party). After travel in Italy, he settled in London, where, with encouragement from expatriate artist Benjamin West, he attained an international reputation. In the new United States, the Langdons prospered; Sarah bore ten children and Woodbury obtained high political and judicial offices.
Adapted from
- Bonnie Pitman, ed., Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 172.
- DMA unpublished material
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- JohnSingletonCopley.org~Learn more about John Singleton Copley and view his complete works.
- Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History~Read a biography of John Singleton Copley from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- The Revolutionary Art of John Singleton Copley~Watch this video from the Chicago Humanities Festival where Harvard professor Jane Kamensky discusses the life and works of John Singleton Copley.
Notes
Copley, John Singleton (American, 1738-1815)
Related Object: 1996.70.2 John Singleton Copley, Sarah Sherburne Langdon
John Singleton Copley is America's first old master. Primarily self-taught, he was unparalleled in his ability to capture likenesses. Copley fulfilled his patron's desires to be elegantly portrayed in visual biographies that confirmed refinement and high moral character. By 1752 he was the leading portrait painter in Boston. To celebrate their recent marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Woodbury Langdon commissioned Copley to paint their likenesses, knowing he would amplify their youthful good looks. The portraits served as centerpieces of the Langdons' newly decorated and extravagant home.
Woodbury Langdon was one of the wealthiest merchants in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His wine-colored coat and green satin waistcoat with braided gold trim confirm this status. He holds a document to indicate the seriousness of his business affairs. The leaning pose and hat tucked under his arm follow eighteenth-century rules of etiquette, which dictated that a gentleman's posture should have an easy gentility, avoiding stiffness or slovenliness. Mr. Langdon, described as shrewd, arrogant and often sarcastic, projects defiant self confidence as he looks directly at the viewer. Sarah Sherburne Langdon is presented as a woman of charm and elegance, suggesting . warmth, vulnerability and a youthful naivete. To eighteenth-century viewers, her bouquet of cultivated flowers symbolized discipline, handiwork, and thus character.
While there was a strong trend towards greater simplicity in women's informal costume in the 1760s, Copley most likely composed Sarah Langdon's uncorseted white satin gown and green robe with iridescent lavender lining to compliment her husband's attire. Copley concocted the backdrops of these pictures. The pedestal supporting the large, ornate urn behind Mr. Langdon and the curtain and romantic garden in Sarah Langdon's backdrop were conventions that Copley adopted from fashionable English portraiture. In these and all his portraits, Copley staged presentations of character and class, but he incisively interpreted his sitters' personalities. In this way, he conveyed the increasingly self-confident image of colonists who, while retaining strong links with Great Britain, were creating a national culture.
Excerpt from
Gail Davitt, "American Portraiture," DMA Research document, Education Files, n.d.
--------
JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY
The precisely characterized Colonial portraits by the most popular Boston artist of his day, John Singleton Copley, are among our best and most faithful documents of early American society. Copley was fortunate in being born in a period when the austerity of early New England had been softened by the prosperity of the shipping trade. Bostonians had been seeing paintings for more than a generation. The mercantile aristocracy, whom Copley was to paint, could afford the elegance of the British courts. In 1774 Copley left American to escape the impending revolution and went to London where he carried on his already established type of fashionable portraiture. Although it is generally conceded that Copley gained greater fluidity and technical skill in his English portraits, they cannot excel the earlier truthful renderings of handsomely dressed Boston burghers.
From Famous American Paintings assembled for the State Fair of TX, 1948, exh cat from Piction
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Copley, John Singleton (American, 1738-1815)
Cultures
Geography
Place of origin: Portsmouth (New Hampshire/United States): TGN: 7014275
Place of origin: Boston (Massachusetts/United States): TGN: 7013445
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
From 1996: Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund [1]
[1] Works of art given or purchased by The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., a non-profit organization, are placed in the custody of the DMA for the purpose of public display on the premises of the Museum or in other recognized art galleries or museum. The title to all works of art purchased (or otherwise acquired) by the McDermott Art Fund remains with the Fund.
AUDIO ASSETS
UMO: 264294489 Learn about John Singleton Copley
UMO: 44997745 (This is the same as the above, so didn't tag)
UMO: 12936902 (Cannot get this video to work, so did not tag it)
VIDEO ASSETS
rules
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1996.70.1.McD
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