John Singleton CopleyAmerican, 1738–1815Andrew Oliver
May one see it?
Yes, receiving visitors
On public display.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- NPG.78.218
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian)
- Image: National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian) — National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (CC0)
Meanwhile, in the life of John Singleton Copley
The whole life1750s
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 · Workplace
Boston
October 1757
An invitation to paint portraits in Nova Scotia
Capt. Thomas Ainslie, collector of the Port of Quebec, writes from Halifax acknowledging his portrait with great satisfaction and advises Copley to visit Nova Scotia, where several people would gladly employ him. The invitation was later repeated from Quebec; Copley replied that he would be glad to accept but had a large room full of unfinished pictures that would keep him busy for twelve months.
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.
