Jonathan Mountfort

ca. 1753

John Singleton Copley American, 1738-1815

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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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 Jonathan Mountfort

Artwork Date ca. 1753

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: 29 1/4 × 24 1/2 inches (74.3 × 62.2 cm) Framed: 37 1/2 × 32 5/8 × 2 5/16 inches (95.3 × 82.9 × 5.9 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. 58.360

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, lower right: John S. Copley | pinx 1753 (?) or 1755

Inscriptions Inscribed, lower right: John S. Copley | pinx 1753 (?) or 1755

Provenance

ca. 1753-1785, Jonathan Mountfort (Boston, Massachusetts, USA)

his daughter, Mrs. Thomas Pitts [Elizabeth Mountfort] (possibly Boston, Massachusetts, USA)

by 1883, her daughter, Sarah Pitts Farlin (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

by 1938, her great nephew, S. Lendall Pitts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Mrs. S. Lendall Pitts (Norfolk, Virginia, USA). 1958-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

Perkins, Augustus Thorndike. A Sketch of the Life and List of Some Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1873, pp. 13, 52.

Goodwin, D. Life and Services of James Pitts and his Sons. Chicago, 1881, pp. 48-49.

The Detroit Art Loan Exhibition. Exh. cat., Detroit Museum of Art. Detroit, 1883, p. 19, no. 147.

Goodwin, D. Provincial Pictures. Chicago, 1886, p. 73.

Earle, Alice Morse. Child Life in Colonial Days. New York, 1899, p. 58 [facing].

Bayley, Frank W. THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY. Boston, Massachusetts: The Taylor Press, 1915, p. 95.

Early American Painting. Exh. cat., Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn, 1917, no. 16.

Parker, Barbara N. and A.B. Wheeler. John Singleton Copley: American Portraits in Oil, Pastel , and Miniature, with Biographical Sketches. Boston, 1938, p. 136 (pl. 4).

John Singleton Copley, 1738-1815. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts. Boston, 1938, p. 25, no. 54.

Burroughs, Alan. "Young Copley." Art in America 31, 4 (October 1943): pp. 161-162.

Portraits of Eight Generations of the Pitts Family. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1959, pp. 34-35.

Payne, Elizabeth. “Pitts Family Portraits of the 18th Century.” Antiques (January 1960): p. 89.

Prown, Jules D. John Singleton Copley. Cambridge, MA, 1966, pp. 14, 20, 22, 27, 32, 34, 41, 223-224 (fig. 26).

Shaw, Nancy Rivard, et al. American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Volume I. New York, 1991, pp. 54-56 (ill.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

John Singleton Copley, Jonathan Mountfort, ca. 1753, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund, 58.360.