Mrs. Joseph Warren (Elizabeth Hooton)
John Singleton Copley
(American, 1738–1815)
about 1772
Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas
Dimensions127.63 x 101.6 cm (50 1/4 x 40 in.)
Credit LineGift of Buckminster Brown, M.D. through Carolyn M. Matthews, M.D., Trustee
Accession number95.1367
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPaintings
Collections
ProvenanceAbout 1772, Joseph Warren (b. 1741- d. 1775), Boston; 1775, by inheritance to his brother, John Warren (b. 1753 - d. 1815), Boston; given by John Warren to his niece (Joseph Warren's daughter), Mary Warren Newcomb (b. 1771 - d. 1826) and her second husband, Richard English Newcomb (b. 1770 - d. 1849), Greenfield, MA [see note 1]; by inheritance to their son, Joseph Warren Newcomb (b. 1804 - d. 1874) and his wife, Sarah Wells Alvord Newcomb (d. 1836) and kept in the Alvord home, Greenfield [see note 2]; passed by descent to Buckminster Brown (b. 1819 - d. 1891), Boston; 1891, by inheritance to his wife, Sarah Alvord Brown (b. 1826 - d. 1895), Boston; 1895, gift of Buckminster Brown, through Carolyn M. Matthews, M. D., Trustee, to the MFA. (Accession Date: November 5, 1895)
NOTES:
[1] See Christian Di Spigna, Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, The American Revolution's Lost Hero (New York, 2018), 263-264, on the history of this painting and its companion, the portrait of Joseph Warren (MFA accession no. 95.1366).
[2] Di Spigna 2018 (as above, note 1). On September 15, 1833, Christopher Columbus Baldwin recorded seeing the portraits of Joseph Warren and his wife in "Judge Newcomb's parlor." See Francis M. Thompson, History of Greenfield (Greenfield, MA, 1904), vol. 2, 1036, which states that Newcomb specified in his will that the paintings were the property of Joseph Warren Newcomb. The portraits were moved to the Alvord home between 1833 and 1851, perhaps in 1849 upon Newcomb's death. The portrait of Joseph Warren is specifically mentioned as being saved from a fire in the Alvord home in 1856. See "Fire and Loss of Life," New England Farmer, January 19, 1856. Sarah Alvord's brother, Daniel Wells Alvord, offered the portraits for sale on several occasions between 1851 and 1857.
NOTES:
[1] See Christian Di Spigna, Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, The American Revolution's Lost Hero (New York, 2018), 263-264, on the history of this painting and its companion, the portrait of Joseph Warren (MFA accession no. 95.1366).
[2] Di Spigna 2018 (as above, note 1). On September 15, 1833, Christopher Columbus Baldwin recorded seeing the portraits of Joseph Warren and his wife in "Judge Newcomb's parlor." See Francis M. Thompson, History of Greenfield (Greenfield, MA, 1904), vol. 2, 1036, which states that Newcomb specified in his will that the paintings were the property of Joseph Warren Newcomb. The portraits were moved to the Alvord home between 1833 and 1851, perhaps in 1849 upon Newcomb's death. The portrait of Joseph Warren is specifically mentioned as being saved from a fire in the Alvord home in 1856. See "Fire and Loss of Life," New England Farmer, January 19, 1856. Sarah Alvord's brother, Daniel Wells Alvord, offered the portraits for sale on several occasions between 1851 and 1857.
