Col. William Fitch and his Sisters
Sarah and Ann Fitch
by John Singleton Copley
A portrait of Col. William Fitch (1757-abt. 1796), No. 422, and his sisters: Sarah (abt. 1763-1851), No. 425, and Anne (1758-1839), No. 423, painted by John Singleton Copley. William's father, Samuel, No. 119, was a Tory, and, in 1776, fled with his family to Nova Scotia and from there to London. William was appointed a Lieutenant Colonel in 1793 and was killed in Jamaica during the Maroon War in 1795. But, according to Franklin Kelly, Curator of American and British Paintings at the National Gallery, "The Copley painting was a memorial to Colonel Fitch. Although it shows him as if alive, saying goodbye to his sisters as he prepares to leave for battle, documentary evidence indicates that Copley was working on it in 1800-1801." He evidently based William's image on the pastel by Sir Thomas Lawrence, shown on page 86 of Vol. 1 of "Descendants of Reverend James Fitch." Sarah is dressed in white, perhaps to indicate her forthcoming marriage in 1801. Ann's black dress reminds the viewer that the siblings' parents had died within the year. Copley's painting was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in the spring of 1801.
Copley had left for London two years before the Fitches, in 1774. He said that he had wearied of Boston, where the public was "entirely destitute of all just ideas of the arts," considering painting only a useful craft. After a tour of Italy, he settled in London, where he was probably commissioned to paint this group portrait.
There is some confusion as to who sponsored the painting. It was either Dr. James Lloyd, brother of William's mother, Betsie Lloyd, or Dr. Lloyd's son, also named James Lloyd. Dr. Lloyd had remained in Boston, where he was a prominent surgeon; his son was a U. S. Senator from Massachusetts.
John Singleton Copley
American, 1738-1815
Colonel William Fitch and His Sisters
Sarah and Ann Fitch
oil on canvas
101-1/2 X 134"
National Gallery of Art. Gift of Eleanor Lathrop, Gordon
Abbott, and Katherine A. Batchelder
1960.4.1 (1550)