The Milwaukee Art Museum announced today that it has acquired a portrait of Alice Hooper – a major colonial American painting – by John Singleton Copley (1738–1815).

The acquisition was made possible in part by a donation from the estate of Milwaukeeans Leonard and Bebe LeVine, along with the Virginia Booth Vogel Acquisition Fund, with funds in memory of Betty Croasdaile and
John E. Julien, and gift by exchange of Chapellier Galleries, the Samuel O. Buckner Collection, and the Max E. Friedmann Bequest.

"Alice Hooper," painted by Copley – one of the great artists of his day in the colonies – around 1763, depicts Alice, the 17-year-old daughter of Robert "King" Hooper, the wealthiest man in Marblehead, Mass.

Robert Hooper commissioned the work on the occasion of Alice's engagement to Jacob Fowle, Jr.

"Alice Hooper displays the traits that made Copley desirable in colonial Boston. Copley's rendering of her fashionable sacque gown dazzles the eye, with its profusion of glinting blue satin and frothy lace spilling from
its underdress," said William Rudolph, curator of American art and decorative arts at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

"The artist lingered on the highlights of Alice's ruby earrings and choker, revealing the great wealth of her family. Yet her pensive gaze and half-shadowed face allude to her graciousness; she looks modest, rather than proud."

The acquisition of the work comes at a time when Milwaukee Art Museum is looking to expand its American art program, a commitment that includes a major re-installation of its collections in honor of the 125th anniversary of the museum in 2013.

"The portrait of Alice Hooper will become one of the Museum's icons of American art," said Brady Roberts, chief curator for the Milwaukee Art Museum.

"This is a significant acquisition for the Museum, and without the
generosity of Leonard and Bebe LeVine and others, it would not be possible. With Alice Hooper, and with the re-installation of the American Collections Galleries on the Museum's lower level, we are re-imagining the scope of American art at the Museum."