|
 |
Biographical Information:
Copley was born in Boston into an Irish family. His father died when Copley was still very young, and when he was ten, his mother remarried. Her new husband was the mezzotint engraver Peter Pelham, who encouraged Copley to become a painter.
Copley's independent style was achieved about 1757, and for the next 17 years he painted portraits in America of penetrating realism combined with a magnificent handling of paint. Characteristic of his American portaiture are "Jacob Fowle" (1761) and "John Hancock" (1765). The type of portaiture that Copley often employed with success was the 'portrait d'apparat' - the picture of an individual accompanied by the materials of his everyday life. As New England's outstanding portrait painter, he had adapted the formulas of the British portrait tradition to the cultural climate of his home town.
In 1774 he sailed to London and never returned to America. After a short stay in London, he embarked on a grand tour to Italy. In Europe, Copley turned to history painting in the manner of West, thus losing his provincial virtues. A memorable Romantic image is his painting "Watson and the Shark" (1778). The Englishman Watson was attacked by a shark while swimming in the Havana harbor and had been dramatically rescued. Later on he commissioned Copley to depict his experience. Copley followed West's example and made every detail as authentic as possible and used all the resources of Baroque painting to invite the spectator's participation. The shark becomes a monstrous embodiment of evil, the man with the boat hook resembles the Archangel Michael fighting the devil, and the nude youth flounders helplessly between the forces of doom and salvation. This charging of a private adventure with the emotional and symbolic qualities of myth is highly characteristic of Romanticism.
Romantic painting began as a reaction, in the name of reason and nature, against Baroque "artificiality". A return to the "classics" meant the style and academic theory of Poussin, combined with a maximum of archaeological detail newly gleaned from ancient sculpture and the excavations of Pompeii.
It is the quality of composition that marks his major works in England: the depiction of contemporary events in modern dress rather than as classical allegories. Although this specialty was introduced by West, Copley achieved the greatest success in this vein. As a major force in English painting of the last quarter of the 18th century, and as the finest painter in colonial America, Copley occupies an important position. He brought to perfection the colonial American tradition of portraiture, and he successfully developed a new type of history painting that was to become widely used in the romantic era by such painters as Gericault.
|
Artists Works:
COPLEY
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
Copley, John Singleton
...more works by Copley, John Singleton
|
Museum Resources:
Gilcrease Museum
|
Commercial Resources:
JACKSON STUDIO/ROBERT SCOTT JACKSON
|
In the News:
Treasures to Go!
Odyssey Into World Art Spans Time, Place, and Culture
Intimate Expressions: Two Centuries of American Drawings
|
Related Information:
JACKSON STUDIO/ROBERT SCOTT JACKSON
ReNATssance Art
|
|
|
|
