John Singleton Copley

Lore & Background

Copley's mother owned a tobacco shop in Boston on Long Wharf. His father, Richard Copley, described as a tobacconist, is said by several biographers to have arrived in Boston in ill health and to have gone to the West Indies, where he died. No contemporary evidence has been located for the year of his death. Copley's stepfather, Peter Pelham, whom his mother married on May 22, 1748, conducted an 'Evening Writing and Arithmetic School' and also painted portraits and cut engravings. Copley may have learned to use the paintbrush and engraver's tools in this household. At about age fourteen, after his stepfather had recently died, Copley made his earliest preserved portrait, of his half-brother Charles Pelham. At fifteen, he is believed to have painted the portrait of the Rev. William Welsteed, which he personally engraved. Copley's fame was established in England by the 1766 exhibition of 'A Boy with a Flying Squirrel,' depicting his half-brother Henry Pelham. This picture made him a Fellow of the Society of Artists of Great Britain by vote of September 3, 1766. Benjamin West wrote to Copley on August 4, 1766, referring to Sir Joshua Reynolds' interest in the work and advising the artist to visit Europe. Copley, in a letter to West of June 17, 1768, noted that 300 guineas a year was his present income and that he could not think of going to Europe at the expense of his own happiness and that of 'a tender Mother and a Young Brother whose dependence is intirely upon me.'

Reader's Guide

John Singleton Copley's significance lies in his dual career as a leading portraitist in colonial America and a history painter in London. His early work achieved remarkable quality despite his own complaints about limited artistic examples. In a letter to Benjamin West on November 12, 1766, Copley wrote: 'In this Country as You rightly observe there is no examples of Art, except what is to [be] met with in a few prints indifferently exicuted, from which it is not possable to learn much.' However, a book of Copley's figure studies at the British Museum proves that before he was twenty he was making anatomical drawings with much care and precision. By October 1757, Capt. Thomas Ainslie acknowledged receipt of his portrait and advised Copley to visit Nova Scotia. Copley replied that his business was so far from slack that he had 'a large Room full of Pictures unfinished, which would ingage me these twelve months if I did not begin any others.' Copley was also a pioneer American pastellist, writing on September 30, 1762, to Swiss painter Jean-Étienne Liotard for 'a sett of the best Swiss Crayons for drawing of Portraits.' His portraits demonstrated genius for rendering surface textures and capturing emotional immediacy. His later history paintings broke ground by depicting modern subjects and modern dress. Copley's move to London in 1774 marked a shift from colonial to British art circles. His legacy includes his son, John Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst, and his half-brother, Henry Pelham, the American painter, engraver, and cartographer.

Did You Know?

• Copley's mother owned a tobacco shop in Boston on Long Wharf.
• At age fifteen, Copley is believed to have painted the portrait of the Rev. William Welsteed, which he personally engraved—no other engraving has been attributed to him.
• Copley's painting 'A Boy with a Flying Squirrel' made him a Fellow of the Society of Artists of Great Britain by vote of September 3, 1766.
• In a 1768 letter, Copley stated his annual income was 300 guineas, which he called 'a pretty living in America.'
• Copley was a pioneer American pastellist, writing to Swiss painter Jean-Étienne Liotard in 1762 to request pastels.