Mrs.+George+Watson

Date: 1765
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/1991/1991.189_1a.jpg&max=460 width="274" height="343" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=32432"]] || Title: **Mrs. George Watson**

Artist: **John Singleton Copley** Born: Boston, Massachusetts 1738 Died: London, England 1815

Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 49 7/8 x 40 in. (126.7 x 101.6 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Partial gift of Henderson Inches, Jr., in honor of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Inches, and museum purchase made possible in part by Mr. and Mrs. R. Crosby Kemper through the Crosby Kemper Foundation; the American Art Forum; and the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment

Accession: 1991.189 || Mrs. Watson, the wife of a wealthy Boston merchant, wears a fashionably low-cut gown of luscious satin and white lace and holds a porcelain vase that echoes the contours of her figure. The yards of expensive fabric and silk ribbons in the costume testified to George Watson's success as an importer of European goods, as did the fact that he could afford to commission a portrait from Boston's foremost painter. Mrs. Watson showed herself to colonial society as a fashionable English matron, but her direct gaze suggests the grit and character of a new American society that would emerge within ten years.
 * Exhibition Label: **


 * Suggested Questions: **
 * How would you describe this woman?
 * How does she compare to Young Moravian Girl?
 * What did she choose to include in her portrait-- what does she want the viewer to notice?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Based on your observations, what do you think life for this woman was like?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">@Pre-Visit Graphic Organizer <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">@John Singleton Copley <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">@The Case of Mrs. Watson <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">@On the Periphery of a Greater World <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">@John Singleton Copley in America <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">@Sermon on the Death of Mrs. Watson <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">@John Singleton Copley--Rising Fortune <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">@Mrs. George Watson article <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">@John Singleton Copley, American Portraits <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">@Signs and Symbols Guide <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Character and Class: The Portraits of John Singleton Copley <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">@Mrs. George Watson's Cofession of Faith <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">Mrs. George Watson (Elizabeth Oliver) miniature copy after portrait - Yale University Art Gallery
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Resources: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Artist Biography <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">SAAM Collections Page
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Links: **