Boston-raised John Singleton Copley was instructed in art by his stepfather, the mezzotint engraver Peter Pelham. After Pelham's death, Copley taught himself, using the few resources available in colonial Boston. By the age of twenty he was widely known as a portrait painter, recognized for his technical skills and his ability to capture the details of his sitters' clothes. His patrons were pleased with his work, for they continued to commission portraits and recommend him to family and friends.

Here, Mary Turner Sargent stands in front of a masonry wall next to a fountain, a sliver of sky visible above her head. With her left hand she delicately gathers the skirt of her dress, perhaps to keep it from splashes of water from the fountain. With her right hand she holds a scallop shell under the water. The shell was a conventional attribute of Venus, goddess of love and beauty, while water was symbolic of purity and fertility.