Lot 159
159
John Singleton Copley (Boston? 1738-1815 London)
Property from the Corcoran Gallery of Art to Benefit the Acquisition Fund
John Singleton Copley (Boston? 1738-1815 London)

Portrait of Colonel Jacob Fowle (1704-78), three-quarter length, with a musket

Details
John Singleton Copley (Boston? 1738-1815 London)
Portrait of Colonel Jacob Fowle (1704-78), three-quarter length, with a musket
oil on canvas
50 x 40½ in. (127 x 102.9 cm.)
Provenance
The heirs of William Fowle, Alexandria, Virginia, and by descent within the family, to
Mary H. Daingerfield, by whom gifted to
The Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Literature
B.N. Parker and A.B. Wheeler, John Singleton Copley: American Portraits in Oil, Pastel and Miniature, with Biographical Sketches, Boston, 1938, pp. 73-4, pl. 33.
J.D. Prown, John Singleton Copley in America 1738-1774, Cambridge, 1966, I, pp. 34-6, fig. 98,

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Lot Essay

Jacob Fowle (or Fowler) was born at Marblehead to Jacob Fowl and Susanna Nick. He married 'Marey' Rowland and was the colonel of the fifth regiment of militia in the County of Essex, where he was also an important merchant. It is possible that in this portrait, Copley has created a visual pun on the sitter's name, representing the sitter with his gun, or fowling piece. Prown (op. cit.) dates this painting to circa 1761, when the artist was in his twenties.

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