John Singleton Copley 1738 - 1815

Label affixed to reverse reads "197.25/Copley/Portrait of a Lady/Lent by Miss C.M. Amory, number 4116." 

Joseph Calef, Jr., (husband);
Mrs. Gottfried Schmidt (Hannah Calef), Newburyport, (daughter);
Mrs. Charles E. Miller, Milton Massachusetts, (granddaughter);
Miss Caroline Amory, Boston, Massachusetts;
M. Knoedler and Company, New York, 1956;
Cummer Gallery of Art, Jacksonville, Florida, 1956-1963;
Hirschel and Adler Galleries, New York, 1963;
Mrs. and Mrs. Lammot du Pont Copeland, Mount Cuba, Greenville, Delaware, 1963 to the Estate of Pamela du Pont Copeland;
Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, March 22, 2009, lot 734.

On loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, 1925-1930.

Wayne Craven, John Singleton Copley, In America 1738-1774 (Published for the National Gallery of Art, DC by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1966), fig. 147, pp. 41, pp. 211.

Overall in good condition. The painting has been relined and restretched. There is evidence of inpaint and restoration throughout the lower half of the painting. Repaired tears and inpaint in area of face. On what appear to be a period frame and stretcher.
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Hanna Jordan Calef (1693-1772) was born in Spurwink (now Cape Elizabeth), Maine to Captain Dominicus and Hanna Tristram Jordan. Her father was killed during a raid on Spurwink by Native Americans in 1703 during one of the many raids that occurred throughout the New England frontier as part of King Williams War. The rest of the family was captured and taken to Canada. Hanna's sister Mary-Ann decided, like many captives, to remain in Canada.¹ In 1713, after the family's return, her mother married Stephen Greenleaf Jr. They moved to Newbury, Massachusetts. Later, in 1718, Hanna Jordan married Josef Calef Jr. of Boston, a tanner and man of standing in the community. They had two children and lived near the Copley family. Members of the family were painted by Copley, though this is the only surviving portrait.

The painting was one of the first in a series of portraits of elderly women, all born in the 17th century. According to Jules Prown, it is possible that the portrait was cut down, and is therefore lacking a signature, as evidenced by the high head placement.²  

1. Sprague’s History of Maine, Collections of the Maine Historical Society (Portland: 1831), Vol. 1, pp. 211-212.
2. Jules David Prown, John Singleton Copley (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966), pp. 211, illus. fig 147.