A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley

ISBN: 0393240010

Author: Kamensky, Jane

Condition: New

This bold new history recovers an unknown American Revolution as seen through the eyes of Boston-born painter John Singleton Copley.Boston in the 1740s: a bustling port at the edge of the British empire. A boy comes of age in a small wooden house along the Long Wharf, which juts into the harbor, as though reaching for London thousands of miles across the ocean. Sometime in his childhood, he learns to draw.That boy was John Singleton Copley, who became, by the 1760s, colonial Americas premier painter. His brush captured the faces of his neighbors-ordinary men like Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams-who would become the revolutionary heroes of a new United States. Today, in museums across America, Copleys brilliant portraits evoke patriotic fervor and rebellious optimism.The artist, however, did not share his subjects politics. Copleys nation was Britain; his capital, London. When rebellion sundered Britains empire, both kin and calling determined the painters allegiances. He sought the largest canvas for his talents and the safest home for his family. So, by the time the United States declared its independence, Copley and his kin were in London. He painted Americas revolution from a far shore, as Britains American War.An intimate portrait of the artist and his extraordinary times, Jane Kamenskys A Revolution in Color masterfully reveals the world of the American Revolution, a place in time riven by divided loyalties and tangled sympathies. Much like the world in which he lived, Copleys life and career were marked by spectacular rises and devastating falls. But though his ambivalence cost him dearly, the painters achievements in both Britain and America made him a towering figure of both nations artistic legacies. 8 pages of color; 50 illustrations