About
ncartmuseum.org

Artist

John Singleton Copley

Nationality
American
Birth/Death
1738-1815

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The Changing Experience of Colonial Childhood

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Patriots and Loyalists

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Women’s Lives in American Paintings

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Becoming Part of the Action

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Families throughout Time

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Writing About Art: Center Rotation Work

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family/meaning

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Pepperrells

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Activity Idea: Pepperrell Family

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Artwork by John Singleton Copley
Work of Art
Mrs. James Russell (Katherine Graves) (1717-1778)
Work of Art
Sir William Pepperrell (1746-1816) and His Family

About

John Singleton Copley started out painting portraits of wealthy people in colonial New England. Some of the people he painted in Boston became key figures in the American Revolution. Copley was a loyalist supporter of the British. He moved to London at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. He remained in London and had a successful career painting portraits of wealthy patrons and historical scenes.

From Wikipedia

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John Singleton Copley (July 3, 1738 – September 9, 1815) was an American-born British painter active in both the Thirteen Colonies and England. He is believed to have been born in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, to Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Anglo-Irish. After becoming well-established as a portrait painter of the wealthy in colonial New England, he moved to London in 1774, never returning to America. In London, he met considerable success as a portraitist for the next two decades, and also painted a number of large history paintings, which were innovative in their readiness to depict modern subjects and modern dress. His later years were less successful, and he died heavily in debt. He was father of John Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst and half-brother of Henry Pelham, the American painter, engraver, and cartographer.