Head of a Negro

1777 or 1778

John Singleton Copley American, 1738-1815

Not On View

Head of a Negro: 1 of Collection Gallery

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About the Artwork

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Markings

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Provenance

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Exhibition History

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

Title Head of a Negro

Artwork Date 1777 or 1778

Artist John Singleton Copley

Life Dates 1738-1815

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 21 inches × 16 1/4 inches (53.3 × 41.3 cm) Framed: 27 3/4 inches × 23 3/4 inches × 3 inches (70.5 × 60.3 × 7.6 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 52.118

Markings

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

John Singleton Copley

Mrs. John Singleton Copley

their son, Lord Lyndhurst, John Singleton Copley, Jr. (London, England). March 5, 1864, Lyndhurst Sale, lot 69, Christie's (London, England). Issac J. W. Burnett (Rock Hall, Alnwick, Northumberland, England). May 23-24, 1928, J. W. Burnett Sale, lot 217, Christie's (London, England). Mann

February 24, 1951, Mann Sale, lot 102, Christie's (London, England)

1951, dealer, M. Knoedler Co. (New York, New York, USA). 1952-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Lyndhurst Estate Sale. Sales cat., London, March 5, 1864, no. 69. ["Head of a Negro/ Very fine - introduced into the picture of "A boy saved from a Shark"; painting sold for eleven pounds, eleven shillings.]

Perkins, Augustus Thorndike. Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley Boston, 1873, p. 132.

Sales cat., Christie's. London, May 23-24, 1928, no. 217.

Bayley, Frank W. Five Colonial Artists of New England. Boston, 1929, p. 184.

"Recent Additions to America's Public Collections." Art Digest 26 (July 1952): p. 7.

Richardson, Edgar P. “Head of a Negro by John Singleton Copley.” The Art Quarterly 15, 4 (Winter 1952): p. 351.

_____________. “Head of a Negro by John Singleton Copley.” Bulletin of the DIA 32, 3 (1952-1953): pp. 68-70 (ill.).

Prown, Jules D. John S. Copley 1774-1815. Cambridge, MA, 1966, pp. 274, 301, 322 (fig. 381).

Plate, Robert. John Singleton Copley. New York, 1969, pp. 90-91 (ill.).

Frankenstein, Alfred. The World of Copley 1738-1815. New York, 1970, p. 149.

John Singleton Copley 1738-1815. Exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery. Washington, D.C., 1965, p. 95, no. 69.

McElroy, Guy C. Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940. Washington, D.C., 1990, pp. 4-5.

Shaw, Nancy Rivard, et al. American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Volume I. New York, 1991, pp. 62-64 (ill.).

American Beauty: Painting and Sculpture from the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1770-1920. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 2002, p. 12, no. 5.

Entangled Pasts: 1768-Now. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 2024. p. 62.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

John Singleton Copley, Head of a Negro, 1777 or 1778, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund, 52.118.