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John
Singleton Copley
1738 - 1815
Mrs. Thomas
Gage, 1771
Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 in
In 1771, Copley left his native Boston for a
six-month stay in New York, where he accepted numerous
portrait commissions. His first subject was Margaret Kemble
Gage, the American-born wife of General Thomas Gage,
commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America
(who had sat for a portrait by the artist in 1768).
Mrs. Gage wears a turbanlike swath of drapery, a silk caftan
over a lace-trimmed chemise, and an embroidered belt - a
Turkish-style costume that enhances her languid pose. Such
clothing was fashionable at British fancy dress balls, but
since masquerade balls were not held at the time in New
York, Mrs. Gage would have had no occasion to wear the
costume outside the studio. Her faraway gaze suggests
pensive thought and intellectuality, implying that she was
not preoccupied with trivial matters. This is the first
painting in which Copley depicted a woman in such exotic
clothing or in such a state of melancholic reverie.