![]() ![]() The neighbourhood of Long Wharf in Boston where Copley was raised accounted for 40% of all American colonial shipping. His parents were shopkeepers and tobacco traders based in Boston, dealing tobacco that was likely produced by enslaved people in the Caribbean. He emigrated to Britain in the 1770s to establish himself in Georgian society, which he deemed a more prestigious and sophisticated artistic milieu than the American colony. RA Collections Decolonial Research Project - Extended Case StudyĪ Massachusetts-born painter, John Singleton Copley’s work was extremely popular with the emerging merchant classes of Boston. He suffered a stroke in August 1815 and died the following month. ![]() ![]() ![]() This was due to several factors including deteriorating health, increasing involvement in arguments and spats with fellow artists and growing debts. Other notable contemporary history paintings from this time include The Death of the Earl of Chatham (1779-81), which incorporated portraits of 55 English noblemen, and The Death of Major Peirson (1782-4), which particularly attracted the praise of George III.Īfter 1800, the quality and quantity of Copley’s artistic output declined. His most lauded and unique such painting was Watson and the Shark (1778), which conveyed the true story of the merchant Brooke Watson who survived a shark attack aged 14. He became particularly renowned for his contemporary history paintings, which focussed on recent well-known events. Over the next few years, Copley developed a successful portrait-painting trade in English society, exhibiting paintings at the Royal Academy, and being elected an Academician in 1779.Ĭopley was keen to move beyond the lucrative business of portraits and establish his reputation as a notable painter of historical pictures, considered the highest genre of painting. In late 1775 he arrived in London, joining his family who had settled their directly after leaving America in 1774. This also aligned with Copley’s ambitions to establish himself as an artist in British society, which he deemed as more authentic and prestigious than the Boston mercantile world.īetween 1774-5, Copley travelled through Europe, predominantly in Italy, studying and making copies of the Old Masters. It was this event that pushed Copley to emigrate with his family from America to Europe, given the perilous political situation and his personal connections with British colonial rule. Copley married Susanna Clarke in 1769, whose father was Richard Clarke, the official agent of the East India Company in Boston, the magnate whose cargo was tipped into the harbour during the Boston Tea Party of 1773. They admired his skill but advised that Copley would benefit from studying Old Masters in Europe, to refine and develop his own style.ĭuring the late 1760s and early 1770s, Copley achieved the height of his fame in America, painting portraits of prominent figures such as Samuel Adams (later to become a Founding Father) and Thomas Gage, the British commander in North America. 1766 saw a breakthrough for Copley he sent an oil painting, Boy with a Flying Squirrel (1765) to London for exhibition at the Society of Artists, which caught the attention of Joshua Reynolds and Benjamin West. When Copley’s father died in 1748, his mother remarried Peter Pelham who encouraged the young Copley’s artistic education, himself a skilled painter and engraver.Ĭopley spent his youth undertaking commissioned portraits of wealthy Boston merchants and engraving works for reproduction, establishing himself as the leading portrait-painter of New England society. John Singleton Copley was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1738, the son of Anglo-Irish traders who owned a tobacco shop on Long Wharf, one of the main ports for American colonial shipping. ![]()
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