

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, PENNSYLVANIA
Thomas II’s younger brother, John, was the first member of the family to commission a portrait from Copley. In 1763, his wife Katherine Greene sat for a portrait that is now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Five years later, John commissioned his own portrait (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and in about 1770 he ordered a posthumous pastel of his father. According to Carrie Rebora Barratt and Paul Staiti, John asked Thomas II to pay a portion of the fee for their father’s portrait and it likely through this arrangement that the older brother was introduced to the artist. In the following years, Thomas II commissioned a half-length portrait of himself and the present bust-length portrait of his wife. Both pictures wonderfully captured the refined elegance and unassuming modesty that characterized the couple and their lives together.