Mrs. Henry Hill (Anna Barrett)

John Singleton Copley · c. 1765–70

Medium

Pastel on paper mounted on linen

Original size

58.4 × 43.2 cm (23 × 17 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Rococo

Mrs. Henry Hill (Anna Barrett) is one of Copley's most quietly luminous pastel portraits, capturing its sitter with a directness and warmth that feels strikingly modern for colonial-era America. John Singleton Copley was the foremost portraitist in British North America during the 1760s, largely self-taught in a colony with few artistic resources. He mastered pastel through study of imported English instruction manuals, developing a technique that rivals his European contemporaries in its ability to render skin, silk, and lace with convincing softness. What distinguishes his pastels from his oils is a particular intimacy — the medium's texture lends subjects a gentle, almost living quality that formal oil portraits often sacrifice to grandeur. Copley produced a relatively small number of pastels compared to his oils, making each surviving example a notable part of the American artistic record. The Art Institute of Chicago holds this work as part of a collection that traces the full arc of his Boston years, before he emigrated permanently to London in 1774. A skilled hand-painted oil reproduction translates Copley's delicate tonal transitions and carefully observed likeness into a durable, displayable format, preserving the spirit of the original while bringing this exceptional colonial portrait into any home.