Richard Dana - Public domain portrait painting

Richard Dana
Artist: John Singleton Copley (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1738–1815 London)
Date: ca. 1770
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 40 x 50 in. (101.6 x 127 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchase, Brooke Russell Astor Bequest and Ronald S. Kane Bequest, in honor of Berry B. Tracy, 2014

Richard Dana (1700–1772) was a justice of the province of Massachusetts and a leading figure of the Boston bar. During the early stages of the Revolution, the city depended on his sage legal advice. He was a member of the committee that investigated the Boston Massacre in 1770, at about the same time he posed for Copley. As a bold enhancement of the powerful portrait, Copley selected a carved-and-gilded Rococo frame. The frame is personalized with the Dana family’s coat of arms: three stags separated by a chevron, with a fox at the crest and Cavendo tutus (“By caution secure”) as the motto.