Mary Hopkinson
Artist: Studio of Benjamin West (American-born British, 1738-1820)
Date: c. 1764
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, United States
Description
Mary Hopkinson was the wife of Dr. John Morgan, chief surgeon of the Continental army and founder of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. In a letter to his mother-in-law, Morgan praised his wife as “an excellent companion at all times... full of spirits.” In this portrait, Mary holds a mandolin, a fashionable instrument for aristocratic ladies. She wears a lavish pink satin gown with a sable collar and pearls that adorn her sleeves and hair. This outfit was not typical dress for colonial women, but was invented by the artist to conjure eighteenth-century European tastes for all things related to the “Orient.”
