John Singleton Copley was born to Irish-American parents in Boston on July 3rd, 1738. His father, Richard Copley, was the owner of a tobacco shop on Long Wharf in Boston. Some time between 1741 and 1748, the elder Copley died while in the West Indies, and willed to his wife his modest possessions amounting to approximately one hundred pounds.

In May of 1748, his mother Mary remarried, this time to Peter Pelham. Between 1720 and 1726, Pelham had been a prolific and successful engraver in London, but left London for Boston in 1727. Pelham primarily produced mezzotints, engraved portraits, but there was considerably less demand for his engravings in the colonies. Thus, he also taught upper-class children of Boston and sold tobacco to supplement his income, while remaining an active artist up until his death in 1751 at the age of 56. Following the death of Pelham, the young Copley, though only fourteen or fifteen. sought to supplement his family income by producing portraits and engravings.

Through his stepfather, Copley had had contact with John Smibert, the most skillful artist in the colonies at that time. The paintings of Smibert, and other Boston painters, such as Robert Feke, John Greenwood, and Joseph Badger, had an obvious influence on the young Copley. These artists painted their subjects in lifelike poses and developed a realistic setting for their portraits, a style adopted by Copley.

By 1756, Pelham, Smibert, and Feke had died, while John Greenwood had left the colonies. This left Copley and Joseph Badger as the only artists of any reputation in Boston, and forced him to educate himself. To further his repertoire, Copley produced copies of such pieces as Galatea Triomphe sur L'Onde, a mythological and historical subject. The pinnacle of his self-education was his formulation of a book of anatomical drawings in 1756.

Despite his interest in painting historical subjects, most people were interested in portraits. Many of his clients were merchants, public servants, or their families, and a large number of them made in excess of a thousand pounds per year. He painted the upper-class of Boston, Whig and Tory alike.

In several of his early paintings, the sitter appears wooden as a result of improper proportions, but by the age of twenty-two, Copley had mastered his art. Of one of his portraits Gilbert Stuart said, "Prick that hand and blood will spurt forth." By 1769 he had established himself as the best known painter in the colonies. This was due to his lifelike depictions of emotion, as well as his attention to minute details and realism.

Desiring to expand his career, Copley, at the age of thirty-five, traveled to Europe in 1774. He worked for a year painting portraits in Italy, France and Germany, but due to the lucrative market in Europe, as well as hostilities between England and the colonies, he would never to return to his home.

Copley convinced his family, which was financially stressed, to join him in England where he continued his work. In addition to his portraits, he produced one of his best known pieces, Watson and the Shark, a historical piece about a mariner who narrowly escaped a shark attack with his life. He continued his career in Europe where he made a living producing engravings and copies of previous paintings.

In 1815, John Singleton Copley died at the age of seventy-eight in London. During his life, he was able to capture emotion and detail as well as portray his subjects in a life-like manner, establishing himself as one of the foremost artists in the colonies and Europe. He was a painter of unmatched ability.

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