1738 -1815 · Boston, Rome and London

Striking resemblance, status objects and historical drama make John Singleton Copley the great link between American colonial painting and British Royal Academy.

John Singleton Copley was born in Boston in 1738 in a modest environment and was largely trained by the study of prints available in the studio of his father-in-law Peter Pelham. Without an initial European trip, he became the most accomplished portrait painter of the British colonies in America. He describes fabrics, furniture, silverware and faces with a clarity that meets the ambitions of the merchant class. The portraits of John Hancock and Dorothy Quincy combine resemblance, character and social identity. On the eve of the American Revolution, Copley left Boston in 1774, studied in Rome and then settled permanently in London. On the eve of the American Revolution, Copley left Boston in 1774, studied in Rome and then settled permanently in London. On the eve of the American Revolution, Copley left Boston in 1774, studied in Rome and then settled permanently in London. Elected to the Royal Academy, he tackled great history painting contemporary. Watson and the shark transform a real accident in Havana into a triangular struggle between body, boat and animal. The Death of Major Peirson organizes heroism, civil panic and military news, while the vast stages of Gibraltar respond to the British taste for historical spectacle. The Copley Family connects intimacy, ambition and new London life. Death in 1815, Copley remains a major witness to two societies separated by the Atlantic and the revolution. The "John Singleton Copley" selection notably compares Watson and the shark and The Death of Major Peirson. His reading favors space.

Copley renders every button and look accurately, then uses that truth of the portrait to give the historical drama the urgency of a lived event.