Aunque fue en gran parte autodidacta y no se benefició de los estudios europeos, John Singleton Copley inventó un estilo de retrato poderosamente convincente que resumía las ambiciones expansivas y la confianza en sí misma de la sociedad colonial estadounidense al borde de la revolución. Su estilo de madurez se caracteriza por una sombría riqueza de color, una iluminación dramática, una observación rigurosa y una capacidad virtuosa para plasmar en la pintura tanto el ser físico como el psicológico del retratado.
John Singleton Copley (July 3, 1738 – September 9, 1815) was an Anglo-American painter, active in both colonial America and England. He was probably born in Boston, Massachusetts, 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.
