12 Works, July 3rd. is John Singleton Copley's day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #180

John Singleton Copley

Watson and the Shark, c. 1778

Oil on canvas

182.1 x 229.7 cm (71 11/16 x 90 7/16 in.)

The National Gallery of Art 

In 1749, 14–year–old Brook Watson had been attacked by a shark while swimming in Havana Harbor. Copley's pictorial account of the traumatic ordeal shows nine seamen rushing to help the boy, while the bloody water proves he has just lost his right foot. To lend equal believability to the setting Copley, who had never visited the Caribbean, consulted maps and prints of Cuba. More on this painting

John Singleton Copley RA (1738 – September 9, 1815) was an Anglo-American painter, active in both colonial America and England. Copley was born in Boston in 1738, and grew up there, training in the visual arts under his step-father Peter Pelham (c. 1697-1751), an English engraver who had immigrated in 1727 and married Copley's widowed mother in 1748. Copley's earliest paintings, from the mid-1750s, reveal the influence of English mezzotint portraits as well as the work of local and itinerant artists. He experimented with many media: oil on canvas, miniatures on copper or ivory, pastel, and printmaking. By the late 1750s he was established as a portrait painter.

John Singleton Copley  (1738–1815)

Mars, Venus and Vulcan: the forge of Vulcan, c. 1754

Oil on canvas

Height: 76 cm (29.9 in); Width: 63.5 cm (25 in)

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts

Venus dips arrows into a bowl of love potion under the suspicious gaze of her husband, Vulcan. Mars, clutching one of the arrows over his chest, approaches. Winged putti assist in their forbidden affair. One helps Venus throw her arrows while another sneaks around to take a spear from the hands of the love-stuck Mars. A third putto floats overhead, giggling and gesturing secrecy to the viewer. This story of love and betrayal provided many artists with an opportunity to create a scene of passion or of moral reprimand.

When he painted this, Copley was only fifteen or sixteen years old. He lived in the colonies and taught himself how to paint without access to European artworks or artists to teach him. His only reference for practice painting came from the reproductions he could find in a print shop. This, the artist’s first attempt at history painting, was copied from Nicholas Tardieu’s mezzotint of a painting by Antoine Coypel. Copley may have chosen this print over others because of its classical theme and the variety of textures and materials present for him to practice. More on this painting

John Singleton Copley  (1738–1815)

A Boy with a Flying Squirrel (Henry Pelham), c. 1765

Oil on canvas oil on canvas

Height: 771.50 mm (30.37 in); Width: 638.20 mm (25.12 in)

Museum of Fine Arts

John Singleton Copley grew up in Boston before formal artistic training was available anywhere in this country. Largely self-taught, by the mid-1760s he was the most sought-after portraitist in New England. He aspired, however, to more than provincial success and wanted to know how his work would be gauged by sophisticated English standards. To find out, in 1765 he painted a portrait of his stepbrother, Henry Pelham, not as a commission but rather for exhibition in London.

Copley sent A Boy with a Flying Squirrel to London for exhibition in 1766. It garnered much praise, perhaps most importantly from Sir Joshua Reynolds, one of the leading English artists, who called the painting, “a very wonderfull Performance.” He wrote that Copley could be “one of the first Painters in the World,” but to ensure such a result, Copley must receive proper training. More on this painting

Copley worked in Boston until 1774 with the exception of a six month painting trip to New York City in 1771. By the mid-1760s he wanted to compare his works with those by contemporaries in England, and in 1765 he sent a portrait of his half-brother Henry Pelham, Boy with a Squirrel (See above), to the annual exhibition of the Society of Artists of Great Britain. 

John Singleton Copley  (1738–1815)

The Red Cross Knight, c. 1793

Oil on canvas

213.5 x 273 cm (84 1/16 x 107 1/2 in.)

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

John Singleton Copley (1738–1815)

The Red Cross Knight (study), c. 1793

Oil on canvas

43.2 x 53.3 cm

Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT. 

The book, The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, tells the story of a knight, identified only by the red cross on his shield, accompanies by Una, across a plain. A storm arises, forcing them to take shelter in a beautiful forest; unfortunately, the forest turns out to be the “Wandering Wood,” where the monster Errour makes her den. Una realizes this and warns Redcrosse not to venture forth, but the knight proceeds anyway and finds himself locked in battle with Errour. Errour gains the advantage by spewing forth vile misinformation at Redcrosse, but Una encourages him to stand firm in his faith. Doing so, Redcrosse is able to gain the upper hand and strangle Errour. He leaves Errour’s body to her foul offspring, who gorge themselves on the body until they burst... More on Red Cross

Encouraged by Benjamin West and Joshua Reynolds, Copley left Boston for study in Europe. He left for London in 1774 and went almost immediately to Italy, where he spent more than a year, studying and painting. He returned to London in 1775, settling there with his wife and three of his children, who had come from Boston.

John Singleton Copley, American, 1738 - 1815

The Copley Family, c. 1776/1777

Oil on canvas

184.1 x 229.2 cm (72 1/2 x 90 1/4 in.)

The National Gallery of Art s

Studying in Rome and stopping in many continental cities, Copley arrived in London in October 1775. There he was joined by his wife, children, and father-in-law, Richard Clarke, one of the Tory merchants whose investments had been dumped overboard at the Boston Tea Party.

Copley portrayed himself turning away from a sheaf of his sketches to look at the spectator. His wife, Susanna, leans forward to hug their four-year-old son, John Junior. Mary, who was a year younger than her brother, lies on the sofa, while Betsy, aged six and the eldest of the children, stands with a serious aplomb indicative of her seniority. The baby, Susanna, tries to attract her grandfather's attention with a rattle. More on this painting

John Singleton Copley  (1738–1815)

Richard Heber, c. 1782

Oil on canvas

Height: 165.7 cm (65.2 in); Width: 130 cm (51.1 in)

Yale Center for British Art 

Richard Heber (5 January 1773 – 4 October 1833) was an English book-collector.

A taste for book collecting was developed in him in childhood, and as an undergraduate he began to collect a purely classical library. His taste broadening, he became interested in early English drama and literature, and began his collection of rare books in these departments. Succeeding on the death of his father in 1804 to large estates in Yorkshire and Shropshire, which he considerably augmented, he forthwith devoted himself to the purchase of rare books. Heber was one of the 18 founders in 1812 of the Roxburghe Club of bibliophiles. More on Richard Heber

John Singleton Copley  (1738–1815) 

Mrs. Robert Hyde, c. 1778

Medium oil on canvas

Height: 978 mm (38.50 in); Width: 851 mm (33.50 in)

Yale Center for British Art

1776 marked the beginning of the second half of Copley's career. As his first work at the Royal Academy he exhibited The Copley Family, painted in 1777, followed by Watson and the Shark the next year. The success of these paintings brought him the praise of reviewers and earned him full membership in the academy. 

John Singleton Copley 1738–1815

The Collapse of the Earl of Chatham in the House of Lords, 7 July 1778, c. 1779–80

Oil paint on canvas

2286 × 3073 mm

Tate

This large painting was to commemorate an incident in the House of Lords on 7 April 1778, when the great statesman William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, collapsed with a fatal stroke while speaking against American independence. Because he supported the colony's interests in every other respect, he was greatly admired by most Americans, including Copley. The recent event is presented here as a grand historical drama, on a scale usually reserved for ancient history. Although carefully composed and enhanced (the peers, for instance, were not wearing their official robes at the time), the work remains faithful to reality with over fifty accurate portraits of those present. More on this painting

John Singleton Copley 1738–1815

Study for ‘The Collapse of the Earl of Chatham’, c.1779

Oil paint on canvas

635 × 768 mm

Tate

John Singleton Copley 1738–1815

The Death of Major Peirson, 6 January 1781, c. 1783

Oil paint on canvas

2515 × 3658 mm

Tate

This picture celebrates the British defence of Jersey against French invasion in 1781 and also pays tribute to a young Major, Francis Peirson, who lost his life in the process. Originally a part of France, the island of Jersey had been in the possession of the English since 1066. On the night of 5-6 January 1781 a small army of French soldiers landed on the island and marched on the capital, St Helier. They captured the Governor, Moses Corbet, and forced him to sign a document of surrender. However, the British garrison and the Jersey militia launched a counter-attack, led by Major Peirson, during the course of which Peirson was killed by a French sniper. Almost immediately, Peirson's black servant, Pompey, turned on the sniper and shot him dead. A battle ensued in Royal Square and the French were defeated.

At a time when defeat in the American colonies was imminent, news of the British victory in Jersey was greeted with alacrity in England. More on this painting

John Singleton Copley 1738–1815

The Siege and Relief of Gibraltar, 13 September 1782, c.1783

Oil paint on canvas

1346 × 1899 mm

Tate

The Great Siege of Gibraltar was an unsuccessful attempt by Spain and France to capture Gibraltar from the British during the War of the American Revolution. The American war had ended with the British defeat at Yorktown in October 1781, but the Bourbon defeat in their great final assault on Gibraltar would not come until September 1782. The siege was suspended in February 1783 at the beginning of peace talks with the British. 

The vulnerable Gibraltar garrison under George Augustus Eliott was blockaded from June 1779 to February 1783,[23] initially by the Spanish alone, led by Martín Álvarez de Sotomayor. The blockade proved to be a failure because two relief convoys entered unmolested—the first under Admiral George Rodney in 1780 and the second under Admiral George Darby in 1781—despite the presence of the Spanish fleets. The same year, a major assault was planned by the Spanish, but the Gibraltar garrison sortied in November and destroyed much of the forward batteries. More on Siege of Gibraltar

His ambition was to paint large history paintings of contemporary events, like those of Benjamin West, and he exhibited independently, charging admission, The Death of the Earl of Chatham (See above), The Death of Major Pierson (See above), and the Siege of Gibraltar (See above). He also continued to paint portraits, many on a much larger scale than his American work. Copley died in London in 1815. More on John Singleton Copley

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