
John Singleton CopleyUSA, 1738–1815Må man se det?
Washington, D.C., USA
Udstillet for publikum. Hvem der står inde for det, står nedenfor.
1750s
Self-education: engravings and anatomical studies
Copley is largely self-taught, copying engravings after Godfrey Kneller, Joshua Reynolds and other masters. A book of his studies of the figure, now at the British Museum, shows that before he was twenty he was making anatomical drawings with much care and precision.
1753–1774 · Virkested
Boston
1760s
A needy tobacconist’s son among Boston’s elite
The income Copley earned by painting in the 1760s was extraordinary for his town and time and raised the son of a needy tobacconist into the local aristocracy. The foremost personages of New England came to his painting-room as sitters.
30 September 1762
Asks Liotard for Swiss pastel crayons
Copley writes to the Swiss painter Jean-Étienne Liotard asking for a set of the best Swiss crayons for drawing portraits, in the hope that America will one day become a school of the fine arts. The pastels arrive and are put to use; Copley was a pioneer American pastellist.