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John Singleton Copley self-portrait, Face-to-Face talk
Publisher |
Smithsonian
Media Type |
video
Categories Via RSS |
Arts
History
Society & Culture
Visual Arts
Publication Date |
Oct 19, 2009
Episode Duration |
00:24:08
Liz Rideal, of London's National Portrait Gallery, discusses John Singleton Copley's self portrait on display in the exhibition "American Origins"
Liz Rideal, of London's National Portrait Gallery, discusses John Singleton Copley's self portrait on display in the exhibition "American Origins."John Singleton Copley, proclaimed John Adams, is "the greatest Master, that ever was in America." While still a teenager, Copley was capable of gratifying Bostonians' desire for realistic portraits; by the time he was twenty, the essentially self-taught artist was painting better pictures than he had ever seen. Frustrated by the limitations of his provincial environment, where people, he complained, generally regarded art as "no more than any other useful trade," Copley longed to go to Europe to study. Increased political turmoil in the wake of the Boston Tea Party of December 1773--his father-in-law was one of the merchants who were supposed to receive the tea dumped in the harbor--spurred his departure for England in June 1774. There, in the flush of new success, he painted his own likeness. He never returned to America. Recorded at NPG September 10, 2009. Image info: John Singleton Copley self-portrait / Oil on canvas, 1780-1784 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

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