Sarah Tyler (Mrs. Samuel Phillips Savage)

Artist John Singleton Copley (American, 1738–1815)

Dateabout 1763–1764

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 127 x 101.6 cm (50 x 40 in.)
frame: 142.7 x 116.8 cm (56 3/16 x 46 in.)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Terms

Object number1916.51

DescriptionA three-quarter length formal portrait of a mature, somber woman sitting erect while gazing directly out at the viewer. She wears a voluminous caramel silk dress, a simple high-necked white organza bodice, white pearls and a black shawl. A white cap is tied under her chin. A dark landscape makes up the background.
Label TextThis three-quarter-length portrait of Sarah Tyler Savage, the wife of patriot Samuel Phillips Savage, was commissioned about the time of her death in 1764. Sarah was born in Boston in 1718, where she lived all her life. She was the daughter of William Tyler, a prominent Boston merchant, and Sarah Royall Tyler. Little personal record of Sarah Savage survives except for two letters her husband wrote to her during trips away from Boston. In one undated letter, he advised her to get a receipt if she decided to buy an enslaved person named Cloe. Copley exhibits his painterly prowess with the application of thin glazes in contrasting hues that build the texture of the silk skirt. The stiff bodice lends to the rigidity of the sitter’s posture, which in turn reinforces the verticality of the upper register of the composition. Although Copley had not yet travelled to Europe, the portrait’s idyllic background evokes an Italianate setting, likely drawn from a European mezzotint print, a type of printed artwork which commonly circulated in the colonies. Mrs. Savage’s black shawl creates a graphic division between the earthen tones of her gown and the landscape, while also emphasizing her modesty. Her white cap provides a halo-like frame for her inexpressive face, causing one to wonder whether the portrait was completed after her death in the year 1764. Source: Samuel Phillips Savage to Sarah Tyler Savage, n.d., Samuel P. Savage Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.ProvenanceThe sitter Sarah Tyler Savage (1717/18–1764), Boston, and her husband Samuel Phillips Savage (1718–1797), Boston and later Weston, Massachusetts; to his third wife and widow, Mary Meserve Savage (d. 1810); to the sitter’s daughter Lucy Savage Bigelow (1761–1834), Weston, Massachusetts, later Biddeford and Saco, Maine; to her nephew Col. George Thacher, Jr. (1790–1857), Monroe, Maine; purchased by his first cousin Charles Tyler Savage (1797–1879), Harvard, Massachusetts; to his son William H. Savage (b. 1831); sold by him in 1891, through Williams and Everett, Boston, to his cousin Samuel Savage Shaw (1833–1915), Boston; bequeathed by him to his cousin Henry Savage (1864–1948), Camden, South Carolina. Purchased by the Worcester Art Museum from Frank W. Bayley, Boston, 1916.

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