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.

InscribedNo 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 . . . . ).
ProvenanceRe: the line of descent of 1992-221 and 1992-222, the earliest portion is undocumented. The two portraits may have been left behind (in Massachusetts? or New York?) when the sitters immigrated to Nova Scotia. If so, with whom were they left? A one-time owner of the portraits, George McClellan Derby, was not a direct descendant of Gregory Townsend but, rather, of his first cousin twice removed, Horatio Townsend (about whom more follows).

Horatio Townsend (b. 1763) --- clerk of the Supreme Court in Dedham, Mass., for forty years --- was a grandson of Jonathan Townsend (b. 1697), a first cousin of Gregory, the portrait subject.

Horatio Townsend (b. 1763) m. Sarah (or Anstice) Green; their daughter, Mary Townsend (b. 2 January 1796), m. John Brown Derby (b. abt. 1797) of Salem, Mass. Their son, Lt. George Horatio Derby (1823-1861), m., in San Francisco in 1854, Mary Ann Coons of St. Louis; their son, Col. George McClellan Derby (b. 1856), was living in Princeton, NJ, by 1932 and was --- prior to Old Salem, Inc. --- the only specifically named former owner listed in two Sotheby's catalogues ("Published").

In 1964, Prown ("Bibliography") noted that the portraits were owned by a son of George McClellan Derby, George T[ownsend] Derby of Princeton, NJ.

Between 1964 and 1972, a Derby family member (presumably George Townsend Derby) either sold the portraits to (or placed them with) Ginsberg & Levy, New York, NY. In 1972, the pair were purchased by Thomas A. Gray, 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; in 1992, on behalf of Old Salem, the pair sold at Sotheby's, whence CWF purchased them.