Mrs. Isaac Smith (Elizabeth Storer) (1726–1786), 1769
Oil on canvas, 50 1/8 x 40 1/8 in. (127.3 x 101.9 cm)
Gift of Maitland Fuller Griggs, B.A. 1869, LHD 1938
1941.74
Copley was the genius of colonial portraiture, and this marital pair (see previous image, Isaac Smith, 1941.73) ranks among his finest achievements. He orchestrated these portraits to be read as one work of art by linking them through harmonious colors and poses. He depicts Boston merchant Isaac Smith at work, seated at a desk with attributes associated with masculinity and wealth. Mrs. Smith, seated in a Chippendale chair, holds a rare species of grapes, an allusion to her husband, who was a wine importer. A woman holding grapes was also a traditional artistic device used to suggest fertility. Mr. Smith may have commissioned these portraits at this time because Elizabeth, at the age of forty-three, was expecting a child. Death in childbirth occurred with some frequency, with the danger increasing with the mother's age. Happily, some months after the portrait was completed, Mrs. Smith was safely delivered of a daughter.
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