John Singleton Copley (American, 1738–1815)

John Singleton Copley

Hurd was a prominent silversmith and engraver in Boston, and the warm gaze and unforced smile in his portrait by Copley suggest the friendship between the two artists. Hurd's open-collared shirt, as well as the rakishly tilted turban that covers his shaved head in place of a ceremonial powdered wig, create an air of informality that is unusual for a portrait of this time.

Inaugural Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 6-September 20, 1916).

Inaugural Exhibition

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition

Silver and American Tradition. Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI (organizer) (February 13-March 19, 1953).

Silver and American Tradition

Style, Truth and the Portrait. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 1-November 19, 1963).

Style, Truth and the Portrait

Four Centuries of American Masterpieces. 1964 New York World's Fair, New York, NY (May 1-October 18, 1964).

Four Centuries of American Masterpieces

John Singleton Copley: A Retrospective Exhibition. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (organizer) (September 18-October 31, 1965); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (November 20, 1965-January 2, 1966); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (January 22-March 6, 1966).

John Singleton Copley: A Retrospective Exhibition

The Face of Liberty. Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX (organizer) (December 23, 1975-February 8, 1976).

The Face of Liberty

John Singleton Copley's America. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (June 7-August 27, 1995); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (September 26, 1995-January 7, 1996); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (February 4-April 28, 1996).

John Singleton Copley's America

Nathaniel Hurd. Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, NY (November 22, 1999-April 10, 2000).

Nathaniel Hurd

CMA @ Oberlin - American Portraits. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 29-December 17, 2006).

CMA @ Oberlin - American Portraits

Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, The Inaugural Exhibition (6 June-20 September, 1916); cat. p. 255.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, One Hundred Colonial Portraits (19 June-21 September 1930), cat. no. 50.

Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition (26 June-4 October, 1936), illus. plate II, cat. no. 23, pp. 21-22.

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, An Exhibition of Paintings by John Singleton Copley: In Commemoration of the Two-Hundredth Anniversary of His Birth (22 December, 1936-14 February, 1937), illus. 16.

Baltimore, Baltimore Museum of Art, Two Hundred Years of American Painting, (15 January-28 February, 1938), no. 2.

New Haven, Yale University Gallery of Fine Arts, Masterpieces of New England Silver 1650-1800, (18 June-10 September, 1939), ill. no. 224, p. 94.

Flint, Mich., Flint Institute of Arts, Art Marches On: The Opening and Dedicating Exhibition of the New Flint Institute of Arts (14 November-31 December, 1941), illus no. 53, p. 30.

Oberlin, Ohio, The Dudley P. Allen Memorial Art Museum, The Arts in the Americas in the Eighteenth Century (1946), cat. no. 1 (see Bulletin of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, vol. III, no. 3 (May, 1946).

Dallas, The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Survey of American Painting from 1700 to the Present (5 October - 3 November 1946); cat. 200 Years of American Painting.

Denver, The Denver Art Museum, American Heritage: An Exhibitions of Paintings and Crafts 1770-1790 (7 March-11 April 1948), ill. p. 9.

Denver, The Denver Art Museum, Portraiture Through the Ages (9 January - 15 February 1950).

Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, George Washington's World (15 January - 14 February 1954), cat. no. 5.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Colonial Silversmiths, Masters and Apprentices (13 November - 30 December 1956).

Jewett Art Center, Wellesley College, Massachusetts, Four Boston Masters (10 April-11 May, 1959), cat. no. 8, repr. p. 25; traveled to Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (19 May - 26 June 1959).

Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Style, Truth and the Portrait (1 October -10 November, 1963), ill. cat. no. 29.

New York, The Gallery at The Better Living Center, New York World's Fair, Four Centuries of American Masterpieces (22 May-18 October 1964), p. 18, illus. p. 18; (arranged by the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture).

Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, John Singleton Copley, 1738-1815 (18 September - 31 October 1965), pp. 45-9, illus. p. 47; traveled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art (20 November 1965 - 2 January 1966); traveled to Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (22 January - 6 February 1966).

Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, The Face of Liberty: Founders of the United States (23 December 1975 - 8 February 1976), illus. colorplate 16.

Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Silver in American Life (24 June - 16 August 1981); exhibited in gallery but not in catalogue.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, John Singleton Copley in America (7 June - 27 August 1995), traveled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art (26 September 1995 - 7 January 1996), traveled to Houston, Museum of Fine Arts (4 February - 28 April 1996), did not travel to Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum; cat. no. 21, p. 57, 93, 119, 208-11, 248, 300, 312.

Rochester, New York, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, ABOUT FACE: Copley's Portrait of Nathaniel Hurd, Colonial Silversmith and Engraver, (1 November 1999-1 March 2000), see Porticus journal.

Oil painting of Nathaniel Hurd, a man with a light skin tone and brown eyes, seated with his hands folded together on the desk in front of him, behind two books stacked on the left. He wears a slick copper-brown robe with reddish-pink lining visible around the cuffs and at the opening and an open-collared shirt underneath. A faint smile crosses his lips and a slightly askew black turban balances on his head.

Benjamin Hurd [1739-1781], Halifax, Nova Scotia, by descent to his son, John Hurd

John Hurd, Halifax, Nova Scotia, by descent to his two daughters

Daughters of John Hurd [d. by 1860], Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Mrs. Thomas Barry

Mrs. Thomas Barry [d. 1869], Halifax, Nova Scotia, by gift to Walter Wesselhoeft

Walter Wesselhoeft [1838-1920], Cambridge, MA, consigned to the Copley Gallery

(Copley Gallery, Boston, MA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

Nathaniel Hurd, born into a family of craftsmen, was one of the most accomplished engravers in Colonial America. His biggest competition was none other than Paul Revere, the famous American Revolutionary silversmith.

Colonial Silversmiths

John Singleton Copley was one of the most sought-after portrait painters in Colonial America. Most of his portraits are much more formal than this image of Nathaniel Hurd.

Copley's Style

We can see the titles of the books sitting on the table. The book entitled Display of Heraldry by John Guillim would have been used by Hurd to copy clients' family crests. In the case to the right you can see a silver teapot that Hurd engraved with the crest of the Gibbs family who commissioned it.

Nathaniel Hurd

John Singleton Copley

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Nathaniel Hurd

John Singleton Copley

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Nathaniel Hurd

John Singleton Copley

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Nathaniel Hurd

John Singleton Copley

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