Abigael Bromfield Rogers (Mrs. Daniel Denison Rogers) (1753-1791)

Copley painted this portrait of his step-niece ten years after he fled the chaos of revolutionary Boston to settle in London. With its striking, windswept sitter; dramatic background of whites, blues, yellows, and reds; and vigorous brushwork and ridges of impasto, the portrait shows how fully Copley embraced the ideals of high-style British portraiture. It shows a confidence and freedom that is absent in the more direct and methodical works he made in New England. This portrait is tied to a story of transatlantic travel and exchange. Rogers, born in Massachusetts, went to Europe soon after her marriage in 1781. She and her husband visited the Copley family at Windsor Castle, where this portrait was painted. The work was eventually shipped to Massachusetts, and was passed down through the Rogers family along with several portraits Copley painted while working in Boston in the 1760s.