Paintings - Classic Costumes & Turquerie

. 1771 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Mrs. Thomas Gage (Margaret Kemble) Timken Museum, San Diego, California. (Reproduction at 1st-art-gallery.com. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

Many portraits of women in 18th century America depict them in imaginary plain, unstructured gowns which do not reflect contemporary fashion. These portrait costumes seem to intentionally remove the sitter from the immediacy of their own period by including some historical or exotic reference to an earlier culture.

1766-67 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Mary Boylston (Mrs. Benjamin Hallowell). Detroit Institue of Arts.

During the 18th century, English colonial gentry were reading and listening to Greco Roman classics including Aristotole, Plato, Cicero, Livy, Horace, and Virgil. To enter a college such as Harvard, a young man needed to demonstrate that he could read Latin and Greek extemporaneously. The admiration of many 18th century political philosophers for early Rome, a model for England’s expanding empire, led many to call their period “Augustan” after the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus.

1766-67 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Sarah Sherburne (Mrs. Woodbury Langdon).
British American gentlemen were reading books on gardening and farming by the ancients, planting quincux beds, and decorating their grounds with statues of Apollo, Diana, Mercury, Mars, Minerva, Paris, Helen, and Venus. They were naming their slaves and chosing nom de plumes from classic Greek and Roman names. Public tea and tavern gardens boasted statues of "Socrates, Cicero, and Cleopatra...and miscellaneous figures from Greek mythology." The classic form was the ideal, the timeless goal to strive for in the Anglo American colonies and new republic.

1774 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Abigail Smith (Mrs. Adam Babcock). National Gallery of Art.
Many of the simple yet fanciful costumes displayed in colonial paintings of women are adaptations of Turkish dress from several sources, including Sir Godfrey Kneller's 1720 portrait of ermine-robed author Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who had traveled to Turkey with her husband. As her colorful life became a topic of conversation and speculation, many other artists including Charles Jervas and John Richardson also painted Lady Mary Montagu in modified Turkish dress.

1771 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Mary Harris (Mrs. Joseph Hooper). Baltimore Museum of Art.

The ancient look of Ottoman fashion became popular in Europe, when artist Jean-Baptiste Van Mour (1671-1737) journeyed with the French Ambassador to Constantinople. Van Mour depicted relaxed Turkish women draped in robes of ermine covering rich, colorful fabrics. The ambassador, Marquis Charles de Ferriol, later published Vanmour's art without even mentioning the artist's name. The 100 hand-colored prints representing different cultures of the Levant appeared in An Illustration from Recueil de Cent Estampes representant differentes Nations du Levant, a 1712-14 costume book depicting the Ottoman Empire, with Jacques Le Hay and Charles de Ferriol claiming authorship.

1766 Artist: John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Subject: Elizabeth Ross (Mrs. William Tyng). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
It is likely that the British American colonial painter and his subject, who chose to adopt some aspects of ancient looking Ottoman costumes, were striving for a classic timelessness. Artists and thinkers turned to what they understood to be the values of classical Greece and Rome, valuing order, harmony, balance and tradition in art. The props, costumes, and scenery of a portrait declared the values and the attributes by which the subject, and often the painter, wanted to be known.

1774 Attributed to Ralph Earl (1751-1801). Elizabeth Prescott (Mrs. Henry Daggett). Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford, Connecticut.

English artist Joshua Reynolds wrote, "He therefore who in his practice of portrait painting wishes to dignify his subject...will not paint her in the modern dress...He takes care that his work shall correspond to those ideas and that imagination which he knows will regulate the judgment of others; and therefore dresses his figure something with the general air of the antique for the sake of dignity, and preserves something of the modern for the sake of likeness...The relish of the antique simplicity corresponds with what we may call the more learned and scientifick prejudice."
1771 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Portrait of a Lady. Los Angeles County Museum, California.
Bostonian John Singleton Copley painted his female subjects in both fashion-forward costumes (mostly gleaned from English mezzotints) and in simpler unstructured gowns that reflected classic designs. Those he dressed in classic design seem more thoughtful, relaxed, and reflective than his fashionably dressed sitters. But Copley was fascinated by the latest French & English stayed, hooped, and bustle-padded fashion trends which could not get to the colonies fast enough for Copley. He wrote to expatriate Benjamin West that in order to dress his female subjects in the latest styles, he would have to import the gowns himself from England.

1770s Henry Benbridge (1743-1812). Charlotte Pepper (Mrs. James Gignilliat). Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Unlike Copley, Pennsylvanian Henry Benbridge (1743-1812) who had studied in Italy with Pompeo Batoni and in England with expatriate Benjamin West, had a distrust of the trendy fashionable. In 1770, when his sisters were nearing marrying age, Benbridge wrote his mother from London, this his sisters should, "not refuse a good plain honest Country farmer if such a one should offer himself with tolerable good estate, for one of the town who perhaps may have a better taste for dress, but not more merit, if perhaps as much."
1784 Henry Benbridge (1743-1812). Rachel Moore (Mrs. William Allston II). Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winston Salem, North Carolina. (Reproduction at 1st-art-gallery.com. Contact MESDA for an accurate image.)
When Benbridge had returned from Europe settling in Charlestown, South Carolina, to make a living painting portraits, he wrote to his sister Betsy in 1773, "Every kind of news here is very dull, the only thing attended to is dress and dissipation, & if I come in for a share of their superfluous Cash, I have no right to find fault with them, as it turns out to my advantage."

1790 Henry Benbridge (743-1812). Mary Boyer (Mrs. Robert Shewell). San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts.
In 1785, Benbridge, who loved the simple pleasures of gardening, was still worried about the too fancy dress of his son, Harry, whom Benbridge lovingly called "my little fellow." He wrote to his sister that he felt that his wife was dressing him in "too good things for a boy like him to wair, & likewise too many of them at once; he can't take care of them when he is at play & more common & Strong stuff in my Opinion would answer much better, & not fill his head with foolish notions of dress, which perhaps may be his bane."
1780s Henry Benbridge (1743-1812). Elizabeth Allston (Mrs. William H. Gibbes).
It is not surprising that Benbridge painted many of his female clients in dignified classical gowns looking serious, thoughtful, and restrained. In an earlier Charleston, Henrietta Johnston had used a simple classic ruffled drape when depicting her female sitters. A few years later, Jeremiah Theus had draped imaginary ermine robes around several of his South Carolina clients. At least one painting attributed to New Englander Ralph Earl refers to the same asthetic. For many of his female subjects, Marylander Charles Willson Peale used some form of simple dress with exotic sashes or shawls as accents to elevate his subjects above the everyday. Even Rhode Islander Gilbert Stuart experimented with loose gowns and ermine wraps, before he fled to Nova Scotia and England.

In England and Europe

1714 After Jean-Baptiste Van Mour (1671-1737) Turkish Woman Playing Lute. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce.)

1714 After Jean-Baptiste Van Mour (1671-1737) Turkish Woman Playing Zither. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce.)

1714 After Jean-Baptiste Van Mour (1671-1737) Turkish Woman Smoking. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce.)

1714 After Jean-Baptiste Van Mour (1671-1737) Wife of Sultan Ahmed III. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce.)

Charles Jervas (c1675-1739). Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. National Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce.)

Gervace Spencer (1715-1763). Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce.)

1725 attributed to Jonathan Richardson (1665-1745). Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. National Portrait Gallery, London. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce.)

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. English portrait. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce.)

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. English portrait. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce.)

In 18th Century America

1752-54 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774). Mrs. John Dart. Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Reproduction at oceansbridge.com. Contact the Met for an accurate image.)

1706 Mezzoztint by John Simon (1675-c.1755) after Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723). English mezzotint as possible basis for following portrait.

1763 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Mercy Greenleaf (Mrs. John Scoally). (Reproduction at 1st-art-gallery.com.)

1765 Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774) Anne Livingston (Mrs. John Champneys). Bayou Bend Houston. Museum of Fine Arts. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1767 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Rebecca Boylston (later Mrs. Moses Gill). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (Reproduction at 1st-art-gallery.com. Contact the MFA for an accurate image.)

1769 Artist: John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) Subject: Martha Swett (Mrs. Jeremiah Lee). Wadsworth Athenaeum. (Reproduction at 1st-art-gallery.com. Contact the Wadsworth Anthenaeum for an accurate image.)

1769 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Elizabeth Storer 1726-1788 (Mrs. Isaac Smith). Yale University Art Gallery. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1769 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Catherine Greene (Mrs. John Greene). The Cleveland Museum of Art. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1770 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Sarah Henshaw (Mrs Joseph) 1722-1822. Bayou Bend, Houston, Texas. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1770s attributed to Henry Benbridge (1743-1812). Rebecca Lloyd (Mrs Edward Davies). (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1770s Henry Benbridge (1743-1812). Margaret Cantey (Mrs. John Peyre). Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1770s Henry Benbridge (1743-1812). Sarah White (Mrs. Isaac Chanler). Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1771 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Frances Tucker (Mrs. John Montresor). (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. )

1771 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Mary Philipse (Mrs. Roger Morris) Winterthur. (Reproduction at 1st-art-gallery.com. Contact Winterthur for an accurate image.)

c 1772 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Abigail Pickman Eppes (Mrs. Sylvester Gardiner). Brooklyn Museum of Art. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1772 John Singleton Copley ( 1738-1815). Catherine Hill (Mrs. Joshua Henshaw). Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. (Reproduction at oceansbridge.com. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1773 Henry Benridge (1743-1812). Sarah Middleton (Mrs. Charles Coteworth Pinckney). Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1773 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Rebecca Boylston (Mrs. Moses Gill). Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island. (Reproduction at 1st-art-gallery.com. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

1775 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Sarah Rivera (Mrs Aaron Lopez) and son Joshua.

1776 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Julie Stockton (Mrs. Benjamin Rush).

1780 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mrs. John B. Bayard.

1780 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Christian Stelle Banister and son John.

1780s Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mrs Robert Morris.

1780s Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mrs Frederick Green.

1780s Henry Benbridge (1743-1812). Lady of the Middleton Family.

1787 Charles Willson Peale 1741-1827 Mrs. Walter Stewart (Deborah McClenachan) (1763–1823)

1787 Henry Bendridge (1743-1812). The Hartley Family.

1788 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mrs Richard Gittings.

1789 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mary Claypoole Peale.

Post Script: There have been a couple of questions about these women in their ermine robes. Although I posted 2 by Jeremiah Theus online, there are 3 others that I know of right now. Imaginary ermine warms both Mrs. Samuel Prioleau III (owned by United Missouri Bancshares Inc., Kansas City, Missouri) and Mrs. Barnard Elliott II, which I saw at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston. Another draped in fur is Mrs. Daniel Heyward which may be at the Heyward-Washington House in Charleston. I cannot remember for certain. Please email me if you know.

And, someone asked why I did not post the Godfrey Kneller painting of Lady Mary Wortley Monagu done around 1720, after I referred to it in my discussion. I simply never had a slide of that. It does appear on page 37 of Carrie Rebora Barratt's John Singleton Copley and Margaret Kemble Gage: Turkish Fashion in 18th Century America which was published by the Putnam Foundation of San Diego, California in 1998 in conjunction with an exhibit by the same name at the Timken Museum of Art.
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