John Singleton Copley

The sitter
Lucy Cushing Whitwell (Mrs. William Parker (granddaughter of the above)
Prentiss Parker, 1915 (by descent)
Mrs. Calvin Josselyn Ellis, West Hanover, Massachusetts (by descent)
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, 1983
Private collection, New York, 1983
Estate of the above, 1987
Vose Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts
Bonnie Crane, Boston, Massachusetts, 1992
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1992

Frank W. Bayley, The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley Founded on the Work of Augustus Thorndike Pike, Boston, Massachusetts, 1915, p. 220
Barbara Neville Parker and Anne Bolling Wheeler, John Singleton Copley, American Portraits in Oil, Pastel and Miniature with Biographical Sketches, Boston, Massachusetts, 1938, p. 179
The Historical Survey, Works Progress Administration, American Portraits, 1620-1825, Founded in Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, 1939, no. 1922, p. 362
Jules David Prown, John Singleton Copley in America, 1738-1774, vol. 1, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1966, p. 228, fig. 106, illustrated

Mercy Greenleaf was the daughter of Reverend Daniel Greenleaf and the wife of John Scollay, both prominent figures in 17^th century Boston. Mr. Scollay, a chairman of the Boston Selectman and member of the Sons of Liberty, commissioned this portrait of his wife as a pendant to another portrait of his own likeness (presently unlocated). A related pastel of Mrs. Scollay is in the collection of Harvard Art Museums and a pastel of Mr. Scollay is in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.