John Singleton Copley and
Margaret Kemble Gage
Turkish Fashion in 18th Century America
From the Timken Museum of Art - San Diego, CA
Presented April 23 through June 16, 1999

The Canton Museum of Art presents a special, limited-run exhibition of the work of America's greatest artist of the 18th century, John Singleton Copley An eighteenth-century fascination with Turkey and the Orient as the site of pleasure and leisure is the focus of John Singleton Copley and Margaret Kemble Gage: Turkish Fashion in 18th Century America.

The exhibition comes directly to Canton after its successful run at the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego's Balboa Park. The exhibit, organized by the Timken Museum, is being sent to Canton in honor of the late Louise B. Timken, who actively supported the San Diego institution, Canton's Cultural Center for the Arts and the Canton Museum of Art.

The General's Wife and the Painter

Mrs. Thomas Gage (Margaret Kemble Gage) by John Singleton Copley, 1771 oil on canvas - 50 x 40 inches Timken Museum of Art

The artist himself deemed the portrait "beyond Compare the best Lady's portrait I ever Drew." The image of romantic fashionability, Mrs. Gage is depicted wearing an iridescent caftan over a lace trimmed chemise with a jeweled brooch at her breast and an embroidered belt at her waist. Pearls and a turban-like swath of drapery adorn her hair. Copley's depiction of Mrs.Gage in turban and uncorseted caftan make this one of the most sexually charged portraits produced in colonial America.

Going Turkish!

Mrs. Gage's wish to be portrayed in turquerie put her in the company of countless English women who were "going Turkish" to masquerade balls. Their American peers, however, who had no occasions to wear such costumes, participated in the exhilarating world of exotic disguise through portraiture. In the artist's studio, clients had the chance to look more stylish than they could in real life. Copley offered his subjects the option of selecting poses, settings, costumes, and coiffures from English sources. In the space of the painted canvas, he created for them alternate or desired appearances.

The exhibition is comprised of a select group of eight portraits drawn from public and private collections throughout the United States explores the phenomenon of turquerie. While Copley's painting of Margaret Kemble Gage is generally considered the most historically prominent American picture in this style, many other colonial women participated in the drama of Oriental imagery. Featured in the exhibition are several important Copley works, including Mrs. John Greene, ca. 1769, from The Cleveland Museum of Art and Mrs. Adam Babcock (Abigail Smith), 1774 from the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Also on view are examples of the genre by American painters Benjamin West and Ralph Earl. A ca. 1730 portrait of Mrs. Kiliaen Van Rensselaer by an unidentified artist is the earliest painting in the exhibition.