Anna Dummer Powell (1764): Art, History and Details

Anna Dummer Powell (1764) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is John Singleton Copley (American, born The Thirteen Colonies, 1738–1815).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Less than two months before the 80-year-old Powell passed away, one of her sons commissioned this portrait in order to commemorate her life and create an heirloom for future generations. According to the sitter’s granddaughter, Powell was “a little woman of sober conviction and strong Presbyterian faith.” The painting passed through a line of female descendants until shortly before it was given to the museum.

Object facts

• Title: Anna Dummer Powell
• Date: 1764
• Creator attribution: John Singleton Copley (American, born The Thirteen Colonies, 1738–1815)
• Culture: United States
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 143.5 x 119 x 7 cm (56 1/2 x 46 7/8 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 126.6 x 100.6 cm (49 13/16 x 39 5/8 in.)
• Collection: American - Painting
• Department: American Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1980.202

A detail from the museum

The museum also owns Copley’s original bill of sale for this painting and its frame.

Collection credit

Gift of Ellery Sedgwick Jr., in memory of Mabel Cabot Sedgwick

Further reading listed by the museum

• Handwritten notations on letter from Ellery Sedgwick, Jr. to Sherman Lee, Sept. 4, 1980, in CMA curatorial file.
• Linda Jackson, letter to Ellery Sedgwick, Jr., June 7, 1982, in CMA curatorial file.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.