John Singleton Copley was an American-born British painter active in both the Thirteen Colonies and England. He is believed to have been born in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, to Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Anglo-Irish. After becoming well-established as a portrait painter of the wealthy in colonial New England, he moved to London in 1774, never returning to America. In London, he met considerable success as a portraitist for the next two decades, and also painted a number of large history paintings, which were innovative in their readiness to depict modern subjects and modern dress. His later years were less successful, and he died heavily in debt. He was father of John Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst and half-brother of Henry Pelham, the American painter, engraver, and cartographer.
Paintings by John Singleton Copley
Watson and the Shark (1778)
Watson and the Shark is an oil painting by the Anglo-American painter John Singleton Copley, depicting the rescue of the English boy Brook Watson from a shark attack in Havana, Cuba.
Copley, then living in London, painted three versions, which are all now in the United States. The 1778 version is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. A second, full-size 1778 replica is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a third, smaller, 1782 version with a more vertical composition is in the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The Death of the Earl of Chatham (1781)
The Death of the Earl of Chatham is the title of a 1781 oil-on-canvas painting by Boston-born American artist John Singleton Copley. It depicts the collapse of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham on 7 April 1778, during a debate in the House of Lords on the American War of Independence. Chatham is surrounded by peers of the realm, and the painting contains fifty-five portraits.
Copley's painting also serves as a visual record of the appearance of the Armada tapestries, which were destroyed in the 1834 Burning of Parliament.
The Death of Major Peirson, 6 January 1781 (1783)
The Death of Major Peirson, 6 January 1781 is a large 1783 oil painting by the Anglo-American artist John Singleton Copley. It depicts the death of Major Francis Peirson at the Battle of Jersey on 6 January 1781, part of the Anglo-French War (1778–1783).
The Battle of Jersey was the last French attempt to seize the island of Jersey, and one of the last battles with invading forces from a foreign nation in the British home islands. The invasion was organized privately by Baron Philippe de Rullecourt but funded and supplied by the French government, and was intended to remove the threat that British naval vessels and privateers based in Jersey posed to French shipping (and American ships in the American Revolutionary War).
A Boy with a Flying Squirrel (1765)
A Boy with a Flying Squirrel (Henry Pelham), or Henry Pelham (Boy with a Squirrel), is a 1765 painting by the American-born painter John Singleton Copley. It depicts Copley's teenaged half-brother Henry Pelham with a pet flying squirrel, a creature commonly found in colonial American portraits as a symbol of the sitter's refinement. Painted while Copley was a Boston-based portraitist aspiring to be recognized by his European contemporaries, the work was brought to London for the Exhibition of 1766. There, it was met with overall praise from artists like Joshua Reynolds, who nonetheless criticized Copley's minuteness. Later historians and critics assessed the painting as a pivotal work in both Copley's career and the history of American art. The work was featured in exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the National Gallery of Art. As of 2023, it is held by the former.
By 1765, John Singleton Copley established himself as the foremost portrait painter of Boston's mercantile elite. Though he was familiar with European art, Copley had not yet ventured outside New England and was largely self-taught. He was at the time primarily a portraitist, but he desired to become a European-style history painter. To test whether his art met English standards, Copley completed A Boy with a Flying Squirrel by early fall 1765, which was to be viewed by a London audience.
Mrs. Thomas Gage (1771)
The portrait depicts Margaret Kemble Gage, the American-born wife of the British General Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America. It was painted in New York during a six-month stay there by Bostonian Copley. The work was displayed at the Society of Artists Exhibition of 1772 in London.
Portrait of John Adams (Copley) (1783)
Portrait of John Adams is a 1783 portrait painting by the Anglo-American artist John Singleton Copley. It depicts the American lawyer, politician and diplomat John Adams. It was painted in London while Adams was in the British capital. He had recently been one of the negotiators in the Peace of Paris that ended the American War of Independence. He is shown at full-length, pointing towards a map and a globe, both displaying the newly created United States.
Copley was a Boston-born artist who had moved to England and become a leading portraitist and history painter. He planned to display the painting at the Royal Academy at Somerset House that year, but its subject matter was deemed too controversial due to the recent conflict. It was eventually displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1796. Adams became the second President of the United States in 1797. The painting remained in Copley's studio until his death in 1815 and was then shipped to Massachusetts. While his wife Abigail praised it as "a very good likeness" her husband considered it "a piece of vanity". Today the painting is in the collection of Harvard Art Museums, having been donated by Ward Nicholas Boylston in 1828.
The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782 (1783)
The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar (also called The Siege of Gibraltar, The Siege and Relief of Gibraltar or The Repulse of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar) is the title of a 1791 oil-on-canvas painting by Boston-born American artist John Singleton Copley. It depicts a coastal view of the naval action of the Great Siege of Gibraltar, part of the European theatre of the American Revolutionary War. The Spanish floating batteries lie crippled and aflame in the background, while the shoreward waters are choked with Spanish casualties. The British rescue efforts are commanded from horseback by the Governor of Gibraltar, General George Augustus Eliott.
The painting is based on an attack that took place in Gibraltar on 13 September 1782. The Great Siege of Gibraltar was an unsuccessful attempt by Spain and France to capture Gibraltar from the British during the War of American Independence. In September 1782 the Spanish formulated a secret weapon known as the Floating Batteries. Designed to fire on Gibraltar at close quarters with deadly accuracy, floating batteries were built of 1 metre (3 ft)-wide timbers packed with layers of wet sand, and were considered fire-proof and unsinkable. The British used heated shot to counterattack these batteries. These "hot potatoes," as they were nicknamed, were pre-heated to furnace temperatures before being fired at the advancing ships. Many were doused but a rogue heated shot could lie smouldering in the bowels of an enemy ship burning a cavity into the wood. Left long enough, these would eventually cause an inferno.
Portrait of Hugh Montgomerie (1780)
Portrait of Hugh Montgomerie is an oil on canvas portrait painting by the American artist John Singleton Copley, from 1780. It depicts British military officer Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton, who commissioned the work from Copley. It shows his participation in the Anglo-Cherokee War two decades earlier, with the backdrop making reference to his service during the conflict as an officer in the British Army.
The work was displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1780, the first to be held at Somerset House, in London. Today the painting is in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery, in Edinburgh, having been acquired in 1949.
The Copley Family (1776)
The Copley Family is a 1777 oil on canvas portrait painting by the American artist John Singleton Copley. A group portrait, it features a self-portrait of the artist with his wife Susanna and children and his father-in-law Richard Clarke, an Loyalist merchant.
The Boston-born Copley settled in Britain shortly after the outbreak of the American War of Independence. He became known for his large modern history paintings such as The Death of Lord Chatham, The Death of Major Pierson and The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar.
Portrait of Paul Revere (1768)
Portrait of Paul Revere is a painting by John Singleton Copley of American silversmith and revolutionary Paul Revere. Painted 1768, it is held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Copley and Revere were good friends, with Copley often purchasing frames from Revere. Between 1765 and 1770, Copley owed debts to Revere, primarily for frames he used on portrait miniatures. Copley is believed to have painted the portrait for Revere to absolve his debts.
Portrait of Mrs. Theodore Atkinson Jr. (1765)
Mrs. Theodore Atkinson Jr. is an oil-on-canvas portrait painting completed in 1765 by the American artist John Singleton Copley. It is now housed in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Frances Deering Wentworth (1745–1813) was born into a wealthy and well-connected family. Her parents were Samuel Wentworth and Elizabeth Deering. When she was a young teenager, she had fallen in love with her first cousin, John Wentworth. However, he was too invested in establishing his career, and he left America to go to London. In London he managed his family's business. Back in America, Frances was 16 and fell in love with another one of her first cousins, Theodore Atkinson. They wed on May 13, 1762 and moved into their new home in 1765 in Portsmouth. During this time, Theodore commissioned John Singleton Copley to paint a portrait of his wife to display in their home.
Portrait of Henry Addington (Copley) (1797)
Portrait of Henry Addington is a c.1798 portrait painting by the Anglo-American artist John Singleton Copley. It depicts the British politician Henry Addington who served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1789 to 1801. He then served as Prime Minister between 1801 and 1804.
Addington is depicted at full-length in his speaker's robes with the ceremonial mace on the table and view of the House of Parliament on the left. It was one of four paintings Copley submitted to the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition at Somerset House. It was criticised in a review in the Whitehall Evening Post. Today the painting is in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri.