Portrait of Lucretia Hubbard Townsend (Mrs. Gregory Townsend)(b. 1734)

Date1765

Attributed to John Singleton Copley 1738 - 1815

MediumPastel on paper adhered to original canvas, the canvas supported by wooden strainers

DimensionsUnframed: 23 7/16 x 18 1/4in. (59.5 x 46.3cm); Primary paper support: 23 7/16 x 18 1/4in. (59.5 x 46.3cm); and Framed: 26 1/8 x 21 x 1 1/4in.

Credit LineAcquisition funded by Alma and Lewis Steadman

Object number1992-222,A&C

DescriptionA bust-length portrait of a woman, her body and head turned 3/4 sinister, her brown eyes towards the viewer. She has pearls woven through her dark brown hair, which is pulled back from her face. A white ribbon tied at the nape of her neck holds a quadruple strand of pearls worn choker-style. White lace on her shift shows at the neckline of her plain blue silk gown, adorned only by a white bow at the breast. The background is plain gray.

The gilded frame on the portrait at the time of acquisition was not original to the picture; CWF replaced it with a modern, 18th century-style, reproduction frame of black-painted wood molding with gilded ornamentation made by Black Dog Gallery and accessioned as 1992-222,C. The replaced frame (1992-222,B) was retained and stored separately.

Label TextLittle is known of Lucretia Hubbard. On 16 August 1764, she married Gregory Townsend (1718-1798). His portrait (acc. no. 1992-221) is one of the earliest pastels created by Copley, but hers was done later. An old, hand-written label once attached to the back of the picture stated, plausibly, that it was created in 1765 (and at a cost of four guineas). Her likeness is technically more proficient and stylistically more accomplished than his, comparing favorably with the artist's oils from the same period (such as his portrait of Mrs. George Watson). Defying the difficulties of his pastel medium, Copley admirably succeeded in capturing the textures of Lucretia Townsend's hair, flesh, pearls, and satin dress.

Townsend remained a Loyalist during the Revolutionary War and served in the British army as Assistant Commissary General in New York. Via the Banishment Act of 1778, he and many other Loyalists were sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is presumed that his wife accompanied him.

Colonial Williamsburg's pastels of the Townsends may have been left behind in America when the couple was forced to emigrate.
Inscription(s)No original inscriptions have been found. A label, described as "old" and "handwritten," was not intact when the portrait was acquired in 1992, and it has never been located. It is said to have appeared on the back of the picture and to have stated that the portrait was "made in 1765 for four guineas" (see "Published," AN EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS BY JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY . . . . ).ProvenanceThis portrait and its companion were left behind when the Townsends went to Nova Scotia. It is believed that the portraits were left with Horatio Townsend (b. 1763), Gregory Townsend’s first cousin, through their shared grandfather Johnathan Townsend (b. 1697). Horatio married Sarah Green and the portrait likely passed from Horatio to their daughter, Mary Townsend (b. 1796). She married John B. Derby of Salem, Massachusetts and the portrait descended to their son, George Horatio Derby (1823-1861). He married Mary Ann Coons of St. Louis in 1854 in San Francisco and the portrait was passed to their son George McClellan Derby (b. 1856). The portrait then passed to one of his children, presumably George Townsend Derby (1905-1992), who either sold the portraits to (or placed them with) Ginsberg & Levy, New York, NY. In 1972, the pair were purchased by Thomas A. Gray of Winston-Salem, NC. In 1974, Gray sold the pair to his mother, Anne Pepper Gray (1921-2003). In 1976, Mrs. Gray gave the pair to Old Salem, Inc., Winston-Salem, NC. In 1985, Old Salem placed the pair with dealers Bernard & S. Dean Levy, New York, NY but it seems that they did not sell them until 1992, when, on behalf of Old Salem, the pair sold at Sotheby's and were purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation