Robert Hooper

John Singleton Copley, Robert Hooper, ca. 1770-1772, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Diane and Norman Bernstein, 2006.12.1
John Singleton Copley, Robert Hooper, ca. 1770-1772, oil on canvas, 50 x 40 in. (127.0 x 101.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Diane and Norman Bernstein, 2006.12.1
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Artwork Details

Title
Robert Hooper
Artist
Date
ca. 1770-1772
Location
Dimensions
50 x 40 in. (127.0 x 101.6 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Diane and Norman Bernstein
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Highlights
Subjects
  • Occupation — industry — fishing
  • Portrait male — Hooper, Robert, Jr.
Object Number
2006.12.1
Research Notes
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2006.12.1

Artwork Description

Mr. Hooper was the son of Robert King Hooper, who owned a fishing fleet that worked out of Marblehead, Massachusetts. The younger man already sports the rotund physique that Copley had captured in a portrait of Hooper's father years earlier. Behind him, the sea, visible through an open window, recalls the source of his family’s riches. Robert had graduated from Harvard in 1763, and Copley's painting shows him settling into the comfortable life of a merchant prince.

Copley owed his living to this new class, whose wealth supported the artists, writers, and educators of the colonies. He had joined the elite not long before, through his marriage to Susanna Clarke, daughter of a prominent Boston merchant. The union literally moved Copley up in the world, where he and "Sukey" bought property on Beacon Hill, above downtown Boston.

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006

Works by this artist (5 items)

View all artworks
John Singleton Copley, Robert Hooper, ca. 1770-1772, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Diane and Norman Bernstein, 2006.12.1
Robert Hooper
Artist
Dateca. 1770-1772
oil on canvas
On view
John Singleton Copley, Mrs. George Watson, 1765, oil on canvas, 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, 1991.189
Mrs. George Watson
Artist
Date1765
oil on canvas
On view
Henry Wolf, John Singleton Copley, Thomas William Vawdrey, 1915, wood engraving on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1973.130.301
Thomas William Vawdrey
Artist
Date1915
wood engraving on paper
Not on view
John Singleton Copley, Peter Boylston Adams?, ca. 1765-1770, oil on copper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Mary Elizabeth Spencer, 1999.27.7
Peter Boylston Adams?
Artist
Dateca. 1765-1770
oil on copper
Not on view

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