Mrs. Daniel Hubbard (Mary Greene)

John Singleton Copley · c. 1764

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

127.6 × 100.9 cm (50 1/4 × 39 3/4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Rococo

*Mrs. Daniel Hubbard (Mary Greene)* is one of Copley's most accomplished Boston portraits, capturing its subject with a psychological directness and material richness rarely achieved in colonial American painting. John Singleton Copley was almost entirely self-taught, developing his extraordinary technique through careful study of mezzotint prints and whatever European works occasionally reached the colonies. His genius lay in rendering surface and substance — the cool weight of silk, the soft depth of lace, the warmth of human skin — with a confidence that rivalled his London-trained contemporaries. What makes this particularly striking is how Copley conveys not just likeness but character: Mary Greene sits with a composed assurance that feels modern even now. Remarkably, Copley had never seen an original European Old Master painting in person when he produced many of his finest portraits, including this one — he sailed for England only in 1774, a decade after this work was completed. The painting has been held at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it remains a touchstone of American colonial portraiture. A hand-painted oil reproduction on canvas faithfully recreates Copley's layered technique, preserving the subtle tonal shifts, the play of light across fabric, and the quiet authority of the sitter's gaze.