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Lot Essay
“Copley is the greatest Master that ever was in America.”
--John Adams, 1776
The intersection of American art and history is rarely seen with such vigor and finesse as in this powerful portrait. Both principal players in their spheres of influence, the artist and sitter convey a sense of quiet assuredness and suggest the growing confidence of a colonial populace. The artist, John Singleton Copley (1738-1815), was the country’s premier portrait painter and the sitter, Samuel Phillips Savage (1718-1797), an influential merchant with political aspirations and patriotic sensibilities. This 1764 portrait with its subtle tones and contemplative mood suggests a harmonious encounter between the two men. Yet ten years later, their worlds would be irrevocably altered. While attempting to maintain neutrality during the events leading up to the American Revolution, Copley could not escape his association with the Clarke family. Copley’s father-in-law, Richard Clarke, was one of the consignees of the shipment of tea sent to Boston harbor by the East India Company in 1773, while Savage chaired the Sons of Liberty meetings that led to the decision to destroy the tea. The following year, Copley departed for Europe never to return and Savage went on to play a prominent role in the fight for Independence. Executed in the year before the passage of the Stamp Act, this portrait can be seen to illustrate the calm before the storm, a moment of reflection while also perhaps of gathering resolve before the upheaval of the ensuing years.
THE COMMISSION
From the sitter’s penetrating gaze to the reflection of the books in the polished mahogany surface, this portrait of Samuel Phillips Savage is a magnificent illustration of Copley’s talents and well explains his reputation as the most accomplished artist of his day. With humble beginnings, Copley rose to become the leading portraitist in pre-Revolutionary America, capturing the likenesses of the elite in Boston, Philadelphia and New York. Among his clients were Savage and his first wife, Sarah Tyler (1718-1764) (fig. 4). He almost certainly began the portrait of Sarah first as she died during childbirth in February 1764 and shown without evidence of pregnancy, she probably sat for Copley prior to the autumn of 1763. Copley’s portrait of her husband is dated the following year and both are documented in a receipt, which has descended with the portrait of Mrs. Savage and is now in the collection of the Worcester Art Museum. Illustrated in fig. 1, this receipt reads, "Boston Dec:r 1, 1764 Recd of Sam:l Phillips Savage Esqr/ six pounds thirteen shillings & four pence which is/ the ballance in full for two portraits one of his Lady/ the other of himself/ P:r John S. Copley."
THE FRAME
Richly carved, the Rococo giltwood frame appears original to the portrait but its English origins and a contemporary bill of sale raises the possibility that it was an early replacement of a less elaborate example. As discussed by Morrison H. Heckscher, other Copley portraits with English frames are made of red pine, made in two parts—a rectangular backboard and applied cove molding, which is then carved—and have mitered corners reinforced with dovetailed splines. All these features are seen on the frame of this portrait. However, a bill of sale from Thomas Johnston (1707-1767), a japanner, engraver and gilder among other things, records Savage’s purchase in 1764 of two frames, neither of which appear to be the example seen here. On April 23, 1764, Johnston charged Savage £2-13-4 for “Making a handsome Half length Picture Frame inside edge Carvd & Gilt” and on September 8, he charged the same amount for “1 handsome frame yr Picture.” With its detailed description, the first entry is undoubtedly a reference to the frame of Copley’s portrait of Mrs. Savage. Although it is possible that the second entry refers to an English frame that was retailed by Johnston, its price indicates that it was the same plainer model seen on Mrs. Savage’s portrait. A few other carved Rococo frames, albeit Boston-made examples, on portraits by Copley are known by their bills of sale and reveal that the cost of such a frame was approximately £9, considerably more than Johnston’s charges to Savage in 1764. Thus, it appears that Savage acquired two similar frames around the time that Copley painted the portraits as would befit the display of companion portraits. It seems likely that Johnston’s frames were initially used for these portraits and soon after, the portrait of Mr. Savage was re-framed with the more elaborate model seen here. A possible reason for this change was the occasion of Savage’s second marriage. His first wife had died in February 1764 and in 1767, he married Bathsheba (Thwing) Johnston (1725-1792), the recently widowed wife of the maker of the earlier frames, thus suggesting that the craftsman and patron had previously enjoyed close personal ties (Morrison H. Heckscher, “Copley’s Picture Frames,” in Carrie Rebora et al., John Singleton Copley in America (New York, 1995), pp. 145, 148-150, 154, for the frame on Mrs. Savage's portrait, see p. 144, fig. 116; Sinclair Hitchings, “Thomas Johnston,” in Boston Prints and Printmakers, 1670-1775 (Boston, 1973), pp. 116-117; “Sarah Tyler Savage (Mrs. Samuel Phillips Savage),” acc. no. 1916.51, available at www.worcesterart.org). Previous authors have variously listed the April 23 purchase as taking place in 1762 and 1763, but its entry on Johnston’s bill follows that for work on Mrs. Savage’s coffin, thus indicating that it occurred in 1764 as Mrs. Savage died 12 February of that year).
SAMUEL PHILLIPS SAVAGE (1718-1797)
The son of Arthur (1680-1735) and Faith (Phillips) (1690-1775), Samuel Phillips Savage began his mercantile career under the tutelage of Joshua Winslow and in 1741 established his own business. Through partnerships and on his own, Savage evidently enjoyed considerable financial success and in 1756 expanded his business to include the insurance of shipping vessels. His participation in the civic and political life of Boston began in 1742 when he served as constable and in 1760-1761, he was one of the city’s selectmen. In September 1765, he removed to Weston where he purchased a farm, his home for the remainder of his life. However, he frequently visited Boston and was actively involved with the events leading up to the Revolution. His support of the American cause is evident as early as 1764, the year this portrait was painted, when he dissolved his business partnership with his younger brother, Arthur, a Loyalist. The following year he is thought to have participated in the Liberty Tree Protest, the event that saw the hanging of an effigy of Andrew Oliver in reaction to the Stamp Act. In May 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, the impetus for the American rallying cry of “no taxation without representation.” As the Dartmouth sat with its consignment of tea anchored in Boston Harbor, Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty held two open meetings at the Old South Meeting House and as moderator, Savage was in the midst of action. The first meeting resolved that the Dartmouth be sent back to England without unloading its cargo. Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to let the ship depart and an impasse ensued as two additional ships with similar cargoes arrived. Hutchinson’s stance led Adams to proclaim at the second meeting that “This meeting can do nothing further to save the country,” an apparent incitement for the destruction of the tea. What followed is what has become known as “The Boston Tea Party,” and its salient details were recorded by Savage in his diary. As illustrated in fig. 2, Savage wrote, “16 december – 342 Chests of Tea shiped [sic] by the E India Company and Consigned to Richard Clarke & Sons, Benj Faneuil junr & Govr Hutchinson 2 Sons, Tho.’ & Elisha, was by a Number of persons unknown, disguised like Indians taken out of 3 Ships …& thrown into the Sea” with the later notation, “all done in 110 minutes” (Samuel P. Savage diaries, 1770-1795, Massachusetts Historical Society, Ms. N-885.7). Thereafter, Savage was a representative to the Provincial Congress and throughout the War, served as Chairman of the Board of War for Massachusetts. He was also a Judge, first of the Inferior Court of Middlesex County and later of the Court of Common Pleas. He had married his first wife in 1742 and as mentioned above, married his second, Bathsheba (Thwing) Johnston in 1767. After the latter’s death, he married thirdly Mary Meserve (d. 1810) in 1794 and upon his own death, was buried in Weston’s Old Burying Ground (Lawrence Park, Major Thomas Savage of Boston and His Descendants (Boston, 1914), pp. 24-25; Barbara Neville Parker and Anne Bolling Wheeler, John Singleton Copley, American Portraits (Boston, 1938), p. 176).
THE HISTORY OF THE PORTRAIT
For two hundred years, this portrait was passed down through five generations of the Savage family. The provenance of the portrait is first recorded in the 1877 label on the reverse, documenting its loan in that year to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and its ownership by “J.R. Savage” of Philadelphia. John Richard Savage (1828-1900) was the sitter’s great-grandson and the painting may have passed to him directly through his grandfather and father, William (1750-1827) and John (1790-1834). Alternatively, it is possible that like the portrait of Mrs. Samuel Savage it took a more circuitous route and passed between cousins (www.worcesterart.org, op. cit.). Born in Philadelphia, John Richard Savage was a manufacturing chemist and amateur artist. He resided in Frankford, North Philadelphia with his wife, Sally Ann Keyser (1828-1886), and their four children. His namesake, John Richard Savage II (1869-1922) inherited the portrait and is the owner noted in the early twentieth-century scholarship cited above. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, the younger Savage embarked on an engineering career in the railroads and after living in various locales across the country, settled in Garden City, Long Island (Park, pp. 57-58). After his death in 1922, his son of the same name, John Richard Savage III (1908-1992) inherited the portrait (Parker and Wheeler, p. 177). As noted on a paper label on the reverse, the painting was in the same vicinity during World War II. Undoubtedly prompted by the events in Pearl Harbor, John Richard Savage III or his representative placed the painting in storage in Hempstead, Long Island in December 1941 and only removed the work in late 1944. As Savage served as a Captain during the War, the portrait may have been under the care of his mother, Elspeth (Murray) Savage (b. 1877), who was still living in the family home in Garden City during these years. Soon thereafter, Savage III met and married Mary Van Dusen Rogers (1915-2000) of Hennepin County, Minnesota and among the couple’s many homes was St. Paul, Minnesota (“Mrs. John R. Savage Gives Tea for Mary Van Dusen Rogers,” The Hempstead Sentinel, 21 February 1946, p. 5; Carole Beers, “Mary Rogers Savage Led Active Life of Service and in Her Faith,” Seattle Times, 29 April 2000). The modern signature “Mrs. Richard Savage/ St Paul/ Minnesota” on the stretcher of this painting most likely refers to Mary and may have been written on the occasion of its loan to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 1962. Probably while owned by John Richard Savage III, the painting was sold out of the family and into the noted collection of John D. Rockefeller (1906-1978), who began acquiring American art in the 1960s, and has since featured in several prominent collections.
--John Adams, 1776
The intersection of American art and history is rarely seen with such vigor and finesse as in this powerful portrait. Both principal players in their spheres of influence, the artist and sitter convey a sense of quiet assuredness and suggest the growing confidence of a colonial populace. The artist, John Singleton Copley (1738-1815), was the country’s premier portrait painter and the sitter, Samuel Phillips Savage (1718-1797), an influential merchant with political aspirations and patriotic sensibilities. This 1764 portrait with its subtle tones and contemplative mood suggests a harmonious encounter between the two men. Yet ten years later, their worlds would be irrevocably altered. While attempting to maintain neutrality during the events leading up to the American Revolution, Copley could not escape his association with the Clarke family. Copley’s father-in-law, Richard Clarke, was one of the consignees of the shipment of tea sent to Boston harbor by the East India Company in 1773, while Savage chaired the Sons of Liberty meetings that led to the decision to destroy the tea. The following year, Copley departed for Europe never to return and Savage went on to play a prominent role in the fight for Independence. Executed in the year before the passage of the Stamp Act, this portrait can be seen to illustrate the calm before the storm, a moment of reflection while also perhaps of gathering resolve before the upheaval of the ensuing years.
THE COMMISSION
From the sitter’s penetrating gaze to the reflection of the books in the polished mahogany surface, this portrait of Samuel Phillips Savage is a magnificent illustration of Copley’s talents and well explains his reputation as the most accomplished artist of his day. With humble beginnings, Copley rose to become the leading portraitist in pre-Revolutionary America, capturing the likenesses of the elite in Boston, Philadelphia and New York. Among his clients were Savage and his first wife, Sarah Tyler (1718-1764) (fig. 4). He almost certainly began the portrait of Sarah first as she died during childbirth in February 1764 and shown without evidence of pregnancy, she probably sat for Copley prior to the autumn of 1763. Copley’s portrait of her husband is dated the following year and both are documented in a receipt, which has descended with the portrait of Mrs. Savage and is now in the collection of the Worcester Art Museum. Illustrated in fig. 1, this receipt reads, "Boston Dec:r 1, 1764 Recd of Sam:l Phillips Savage Esqr/ six pounds thirteen shillings & four pence which is/ the ballance in full for two portraits one of his Lady/ the other of himself/ P:r John S. Copley."
THE FRAME
Richly carved, the Rococo giltwood frame appears original to the portrait but its English origins and a contemporary bill of sale raises the possibility that it was an early replacement of a less elaborate example. As discussed by Morrison H. Heckscher, other Copley portraits with English frames are made of red pine, made in two parts—a rectangular backboard and applied cove molding, which is then carved—and have mitered corners reinforced with dovetailed splines. All these features are seen on the frame of this portrait. However, a bill of sale from Thomas Johnston (1707-1767), a japanner, engraver and gilder among other things, records Savage’s purchase in 1764 of two frames, neither of which appear to be the example seen here. On April 23, 1764, Johnston charged Savage £2-13-4 for “Making a handsome Half length Picture Frame inside edge Carvd & Gilt” and on September 8, he charged the same amount for “1 handsome frame yr Picture.” With its detailed description, the first entry is undoubtedly a reference to the frame of Copley’s portrait of Mrs. Savage. Although it is possible that the second entry refers to an English frame that was retailed by Johnston, its price indicates that it was the same plainer model seen on Mrs. Savage’s portrait. A few other carved Rococo frames, albeit Boston-made examples, on portraits by Copley are known by their bills of sale and reveal that the cost of such a frame was approximately £9, considerably more than Johnston’s charges to Savage in 1764. Thus, it appears that Savage acquired two similar frames around the time that Copley painted the portraits as would befit the display of companion portraits. It seems likely that Johnston’s frames were initially used for these portraits and soon after, the portrait of Mr. Savage was re-framed with the more elaborate model seen here. A possible reason for this change was the occasion of Savage’s second marriage. His first wife had died in February 1764 and in 1767, he married Bathsheba (Thwing) Johnston (1725-1792), the recently widowed wife of the maker of the earlier frames, thus suggesting that the craftsman and patron had previously enjoyed close personal ties (Morrison H. Heckscher, “Copley’s Picture Frames,” in Carrie Rebora et al., John Singleton Copley in America (New York, 1995), pp. 145, 148-150, 154, for the frame on Mrs. Savage's portrait, see p. 144, fig. 116; Sinclair Hitchings, “Thomas Johnston,” in Boston Prints and Printmakers, 1670-1775 (Boston, 1973), pp. 116-117; “Sarah Tyler Savage (Mrs. Samuel Phillips Savage),” acc. no. 1916.51, available at www.worcesterart.org). Previous authors have variously listed the April 23 purchase as taking place in 1762 and 1763, but its entry on Johnston’s bill follows that for work on Mrs. Savage’s coffin, thus indicating that it occurred in 1764 as Mrs. Savage died 12 February of that year).
SAMUEL PHILLIPS SAVAGE (1718-1797)
The son of Arthur (1680-1735) and Faith (Phillips) (1690-1775), Samuel Phillips Savage began his mercantile career under the tutelage of Joshua Winslow and in 1741 established his own business. Through partnerships and on his own, Savage evidently enjoyed considerable financial success and in 1756 expanded his business to include the insurance of shipping vessels. His participation in the civic and political life of Boston began in 1742 when he served as constable and in 1760-1761, he was one of the city’s selectmen. In September 1765, he removed to Weston where he purchased a farm, his home for the remainder of his life. However, he frequently visited Boston and was actively involved with the events leading up to the Revolution. His support of the American cause is evident as early as 1764, the year this portrait was painted, when he dissolved his business partnership with his younger brother, Arthur, a Loyalist. The following year he is thought to have participated in the Liberty Tree Protest, the event that saw the hanging of an effigy of Andrew Oliver in reaction to the Stamp Act. In May 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, the impetus for the American rallying cry of “no taxation without representation.” As the Dartmouth sat with its consignment of tea anchored in Boston Harbor, Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty held two open meetings at the Old South Meeting House and as moderator, Savage was in the midst of action. The first meeting resolved that the Dartmouth be sent back to England without unloading its cargo. Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to let the ship depart and an impasse ensued as two additional ships with similar cargoes arrived. Hutchinson’s stance led Adams to proclaim at the second meeting that “This meeting can do nothing further to save the country,” an apparent incitement for the destruction of the tea. What followed is what has become known as “The Boston Tea Party,” and its salient details were recorded by Savage in his diary. As illustrated in fig. 2, Savage wrote, “16 december – 342 Chests of Tea shiped [sic] by the E India Company and Consigned to Richard Clarke & Sons, Benj Faneuil junr & Govr Hutchinson 2 Sons, Tho.’ & Elisha, was by a Number of persons unknown, disguised like Indians taken out of 3 Ships …& thrown into the Sea” with the later notation, “all done in 110 minutes” (Samuel P. Savage diaries, 1770-1795, Massachusetts Historical Society, Ms. N-885.7). Thereafter, Savage was a representative to the Provincial Congress and throughout the War, served as Chairman of the Board of War for Massachusetts. He was also a Judge, first of the Inferior Court of Middlesex County and later of the Court of Common Pleas. He had married his first wife in 1742 and as mentioned above, married his second, Bathsheba (Thwing) Johnston in 1767. After the latter’s death, he married thirdly Mary Meserve (d. 1810) in 1794 and upon his own death, was buried in Weston’s Old Burying Ground (Lawrence Park, Major Thomas Savage of Boston and His Descendants (Boston, 1914), pp. 24-25; Barbara Neville Parker and Anne Bolling Wheeler, John Singleton Copley, American Portraits (Boston, 1938), p. 176).
THE HISTORY OF THE PORTRAIT
For two hundred years, this portrait was passed down through five generations of the Savage family. The provenance of the portrait is first recorded in the 1877 label on the reverse, documenting its loan in that year to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and its ownership by “J.R. Savage” of Philadelphia. John Richard Savage (1828-1900) was the sitter’s great-grandson and the painting may have passed to him directly through his grandfather and father, William (1750-1827) and John (1790-1834). Alternatively, it is possible that like the portrait of Mrs. Samuel Savage it took a more circuitous route and passed between cousins (www.worcesterart.org, op. cit.). Born in Philadelphia, John Richard Savage was a manufacturing chemist and amateur artist. He resided in Frankford, North Philadelphia with his wife, Sally Ann Keyser (1828-1886), and their four children. His namesake, John Richard Savage II (1869-1922) inherited the portrait and is the owner noted in the early twentieth-century scholarship cited above. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, the younger Savage embarked on an engineering career in the railroads and after living in various locales across the country, settled in Garden City, Long Island (Park, pp. 57-58). After his death in 1922, his son of the same name, John Richard Savage III (1908-1992) inherited the portrait (Parker and Wheeler, p. 177). As noted on a paper label on the reverse, the painting was in the same vicinity during World War II. Undoubtedly prompted by the events in Pearl Harbor, John Richard Savage III or his representative placed the painting in storage in Hempstead, Long Island in December 1941 and only removed the work in late 1944. As Savage served as a Captain during the War, the portrait may have been under the care of his mother, Elspeth (Murray) Savage (b. 1877), who was still living in the family home in Garden City during these years. Soon thereafter, Savage III met and married Mary Van Dusen Rogers (1915-2000) of Hennepin County, Minnesota and among the couple’s many homes was St. Paul, Minnesota (“Mrs. John R. Savage Gives Tea for Mary Van Dusen Rogers,” The Hempstead Sentinel, 21 February 1946, p. 5; Carole Beers, “Mary Rogers Savage Led Active Life of Service and in Her Faith,” Seattle Times, 29 April 2000). The modern signature “Mrs. Richard Savage/ St Paul/ Minnesota” on the stretcher of this painting most likely refers to Mary and may have been written on the occasion of its loan to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 1962. Probably while owned by John Richard Savage III, the painting was sold out of the family and into the noted collection of John D. Rockefeller (1906-1978), who began acquiring American art in the 1960s, and has since featured in several prominent collections.