John Singleton Copley
Portrait of Hugh Montgomerie, Later Twelfth Earl of Eglinton1780

Not on view

Full-length oil portrait of a man in 18th-century Scottish Highland military uniform — red coat, tartan plaid and kilt, feathered bonnet — pointing left against a stormy battle backdrop

Oil painting detail of a battle scene with dramatic dark smoke; soldiers in Highland military dress with red-and-white tartan hose engage fallen figures on the ground, rendered with painterly brushwork.

Artist or Maker: John Singleton Copley
United States, 1738-1815
Title: Portrait of Hugh Montgomerie, Later Twelfth Earl of Eglinton
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 1780
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 94 1/2 × 59 3/4 in. (240.03 × 151.77 cm) Frame: 106 1/2 × 69 1/2 × 6 in. (270.51 × 176.53 × 15.24 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Andrew Norman Foundation and Museum Acquisition Fund
Accession Number: M.68.74
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: American Art
Curatorial Notes: In 1780, at the time this portrait was painted, it was forbidden to wear Scottish tartan in England unless one was serving in the British military. Scotsman Hugh Montgomerie is portrayed here commanding a British battalion, wearing traditional attire; his clan tartan reflects at once his Scottish heritage and the recent military expansion of the British Empire into the Scottish Isles following the 1746 Battle of Culloden. Montgomerie stands in the victorious classical pose of the Apollo Belvedere above a group of fallen Tsalagi (Cherokee) amid an ambush. However, the portrait does not tell the truth: Although Montgomerie fought for the British in the colonies, he did not take part in the battle depicted here, which occurred in 1760, twenty years prior to the execution of this painting. More significantly, the Cherokee did not capitulate in this battle as Copley’s painting suggests. A few weeks after Britain’s attack, the Cherokee prevailed and European troops retreated from the area.

Such images of conquest inevitably contribute to the erasure of those portrayed as the defeated, generating an assumption that once the depicted battle was lost, these groups or peoples disappeared. But a single flattering portrait–cum–history painting does not constitute abiding truth—the British went on to lose the American Revolutionary War, the Cherokee Nation would become the largest tribe in the territory known as the United States, and, as of this writing (2021), a significant political movement for independence from the United Kingdom persists in Scotland.
Provenance: Hugh Montgomerie, Coilsfield, Ayrshire, Scotland, to 1819 § Mrs. Edward Archibald Hamilton (Lady Jane Montgomerie; by descent), Rozelle, Ayrshire, to 1860 § Lt. Commander John Hamilton, R.N. (by descent), to 1967 (sale, Christie’s, London, Important English Pictures, July 7, 1967, no. 109, repro., p. 44 overleaf § M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1967-68.
Hugh Montgomerie (1739–1819), Coilsfield, Ayrshire, Scotland, by descent 1819 to his daughter; Mrs. Edward Archibald Hamilton (Lady Jane Montgomerie, 1775–1860), Rozelle, Ayrshire, by descent in the Hamilton family to; Lt. Commander John Hamilton, R.N. (1911–1994) (sale, London, Christie’s, “Important English Pictures,” 7 July 1967, lot 109, illus., p. 44 overleaf, to); [M. Knoedler & Co., New York, sold 1968 to]; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Fort, Ilene Susan and Michael Quick. American Art: a Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
LACMA: Obras Maestras 1750-1950: Pintura Estadounidense Del Museo De Arte Del Condado De Los Angeles. Mexico, D.F.: Museo Nacional de Arte, 2006.
Esguerra, Clarissa, and Michaela Hansen. Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2022.
Esguerra, Clarissa M., Michaela Hansen, Katie Somerville, and Danielle Whitfield, editors. Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse. Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria; Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2022.

Related Unframed

Flipping Stereotypes on Their Stilettos with Native Voices

August 26, 2022
Holly M. Crawford, Clarissa Esguerra, Michaela Hansen, Leah Lehmbeck

John Singleton Copley
Portrait of Hugh Montgomerie, Later Twelfth Earl of Eglinton1780

Not on view

Artist or Maker: John Singleton Copley
United States, 1738-1815
Title: Portrait of Hugh Montgomerie, Later Twelfth Earl of Eglinton
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 1780
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 94 1/2 × 59 3/4 in. (240.03 × 151.77 cm) Frame: 106 1/2 × 69 1/2 × 6 in. (270.51 × 176.53 × 15.24 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Andrew Norman Foundation and Museum Acquisition Fund
Accession Number: M.68.74
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: American Art
Curatorial Notes: In 1780, at the time this portrait was painted, it was forbidden to wear Scottish tartan in England unless one was serving in the British military. Scotsman Hugh Montgomerie is portrayed here commanding a British battalion, wearing traditional attire; his clan tartan reflects at once his Scottish heritage and the recent military expansion of the British Empire into the Scottish Isles following the 1746 Battle of Culloden. Montgomerie stands in the victorious classical pose of the Apollo Belvedere above a group of fallen Tsalagi (Cherokee) amid an ambush. However, the portrait does not tell the truth: Although Montgomerie fought for the British in the colonies, he did not take part in the battle depicted here, which occurred in 1760, twenty years prior to the execution of this painting. More significantly, the Cherokee did not capitulate in this battle as Copley’s painting suggests. A few weeks after Britain’s attack, the Cherokee prevailed and European troops retreated from the area.

Such images of conquest inevitably contribute to the erasure of those portrayed as the defeated, generating an assumption that once the depicted battle was lost, these groups or peoples disappeared. But a single flattering portrait–cum–history painting does not constitute abiding truth—the British went on to lose the American Revolutionary War, the Cherokee Nation would become the largest tribe in the territory known as the United States, and, as of this writing (2021), a significant political movement for independence from the United Kingdom persists in Scotland.
Provenance: Hugh Montgomerie, Coilsfield, Ayrshire, Scotland, to 1819 § Mrs. Edward Archibald Hamilton (Lady Jane Montgomerie; by descent), Rozelle, Ayrshire, to 1860 § Lt. Commander John Hamilton, R.N. (by descent), to 1967 (sale, Christie’s, London, Important English Pictures, July 7, 1967, no. 109, repro., p. 44 overleaf § M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1967-68.
Hugh Montgomerie (1739–1819), Coilsfield, Ayrshire, Scotland, by descent 1819 to his daughter; Mrs. Edward Archibald Hamilton (Lady Jane Montgomerie, 1775–1860), Rozelle, Ayrshire, by descent in the Hamilton family to; Lt. Commander John Hamilton, R.N. (1911–1994) (sale, London, Christie’s, “Important English Pictures,” 7 July 1967, lot 109, illus., p. 44 overleaf, to); [M. Knoedler & Co., New York, sold 1968 to]; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Fort, Ilene Susan and Michael Quick. American Art: a Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
LACMA: Obras Maestras 1750-1950: Pintura Estadounidense Del Museo De Arte Del Condado De Los Angeles. Mexico, D.F.: Museo Nacional de Arte, 2006.
Esguerra, Clarissa, and Michaela Hansen. Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2022.
Esguerra, Clarissa M., Michaela Hansen, Katie Somerville, and Danielle Whitfield, editors. Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse. Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria; Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2022.

Related Unframed

Flipping Stereotypes on Their Stilettos with Native Voices

August 26, 2022
Holly M. Crawford, Clarissa Esguerra, Michaela Hansen, Leah Lehmbeck