Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
COPLEY, JOHN SINGLETON. (1738–1815). American painter. Massachusetts. Born in Boston on 3 July 1738, John Singleton Copley established himself as a professional portrait and pastel painter as a teenager. An exhibition of his painting "Boy with the Squirrel" in England in 1766 made him known in that country, gained him election to the Society of Artists, and earned him the support of fellow artists, including Benjamin West and Joshua Reynolds. Copley seems to have been in sympathy with the Patriot cause but was too engrossed in his art to let himself be diverted by politics. His father-in-law, Richard Clarke (1711–1795), was the merchant to whom was consigned the merchandise that figured in the Boston Tea Party, and Copley's in-laws were all Loyalists, so in June 1774 the artist yielded to a long-standing desire to further his training in Europe and went to London. Here he met Sir Joshua Reynolds, visited the Royal Academy, was received by Governor Thomas Hutchinson and other Bostonians-in-exile, and then undertook a tour through Italy. On his return to London he was joined by his wife and children, and they soon established what was to be their permanent home on Hanover Square.
In the fashion of the times he painted historical scenes as well as portraits, and his "Death of the Earl of Chatham" was his most successful venture into that field. Copley presented it in the first-ever London exhibition of a single painting. During the Revolution he painted portraits of Loyalists, British officers and politicians, English gentry, and the children of King George III. Copley did not return to the United States, dying in London on 9 September 1815.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
John Singleton Copley Papers. Public Records Office, Kew, England.
Neff, Emily B. John Singleton Copley in England. London: Merrell Holberton, 1995.
Rebora, Carrie, et al. John Singleton Copley in America. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995.
revised by Michael Bellesiles