Mrs. Sylvanus Bourne

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.

1766

“A Boy with a Flying Squirrel” at the London exhibition

The exhibition of 1766 establishes Copley’s fame in England. Joshua Reynolds speaks warmly of the picture, saying that with a proper artistic education Copley could become a master of world stature.

4 August 1766

West urges Copley to study in Europe

By one account, on receiving the picture without the painter’s name West exclaimed that its colouring was worthy of Titian, and he got it into the exhibition; on 4 August he writes to Copley of Reynolds’s interest and advises a visit to Europe of three or four years. In October and November Copley gladly agrees to send more pictures but laments that no portrait worthy of the name of a picture has been brought to Boston within his memory.

3 September 1766

Elected to the Society of Artists of Great Britain

By vote of 3 September 1766, “A Boy with a Flying Squirrel” makes the young Boston painter a Fellow of the Society of Artists of Great Britain.

17 June 1768

Explains to West why he is not yet coming to Europe

Copley writes that he would go only with a very good prospect of doing as well there as at home: his present income of 300 guineas a year is a fair living in America, and his mother and young brother depend on him. West replies on 20 September that he has talked over Copley’s prospects with London artists, who agree that he has nothing to hazard.