Samuel Pitts, early 19th century

  • John Singleton Copley, American, 1738-1815

Oil on panel

  • Unframed: 23 1/2 × 19 1/2 inches (59.7 × 49.5 cm)
  • 30 5/8 × 26 1/4 × 3 1/2 inches (77.8 × 66.7 × 8.9 cm)

Founders Society Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund

58.358

Department

American Art before 1950

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)

Goodwin, D. Life and Services of James Pitts and his Sons. Chicago, 1881, pp. 3, 15-20, 34-35. Detroit Museum of Art. 1883, p. 73, no. 779. [entered as James Pitts as by an unknown artist] Goodwin, D. Provincial Pictures. Chicago, 1886, pp. 34-35, 39 (ill.). Paintings by Early American Artists. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1915, no. 8. Pilgrim Tercentenary Exhibition. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1921, no. 9. Bayley, F. W. Five Colonial Artists of New England. Boston, 1929, p. 255. Eleventh Loan Exhibition: American Colonial and Early Federal Art. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1930, no. 74. Parker, Barbara N. and A.B. Wheeler. John Singleton Copley: American Portraits in Oil, Pastel , and Miniature, with Biographical Sketches. Boston, 1938, p. 227. [as a pastel] Payne, Elizabeth . Eight Generations of the Pitts Family. Detroit, 1959, pp. 32-33. Payne, Elizabeth. “Pitts Family Portraits of the 18th Century.” Antiques (January 1960): pp. 87-89. Prown, Jules D. John Singleton Copley. Cambridge, MA, 1966, p. 241. Shaw, Nancy Rivard, et al. American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Volume I. New York, 1991, pp. 283-284 (ill.).

probably after John Singleton Copley, Samuel Pitts, early 19th century, oil on panel. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund, 58.358.