John Singleton Copley in America
By: Carrie Rebora ... [et al.] ; with contributions by Morrison H. Heckscher, Aileen Ribeiro, Marjorie Shelley.
Contributors: Barratt, Carrie Rebora.; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Distributed by H.N. Abrams
Published: 1995
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 348
Subjects: Copley, John Singleton, 1738-1815 -- Exhibitions; Artists and patrons -- United States -- History -- 18th century -- Exhibitions; Group identity in art -- Exhibitions; Social status in art -- Exhibitions; United States -- Biography -- Portraits -- Exhibitions
Description: "Unexpectedly, John Singleton Copley illuminated Boston's colonial sky," writes one of the authors of this volume. The son of poor Irish immigrants, Copley (1738-1815) became the supreme portraitist of the colonial era before he left his native Boston for England in 1774. Primarily in Boston, and to some extent in New York, Copley depicted contemporary merchant princes, clergymen, and military officers and their wives, as well as Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and other political leaders.

His splendidly painted portraits provided his sitters, Loyalists and revolutionaries alike, with the opulent images they craved and brought him spectacular material success.

This book, which accompanies an important exhibition of Copley's work organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is the first major study of the artist published since 1966.

Like the exhibition, it focuses on the large-scale paintings, miniatures, and pastels Copley executed before he moved to London, on the theory that his American oeuvre is unified by the circumstances of its production and is stylistically and intellectually distinct from his English pictures.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 329-336) and index.
Exhibition catalog.