Of John Singleton Copley, Who Crossed the Ocean the Wrong Way

In the context of my current spate of posts celebrating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, I had an internal debate about whether of no I should include the painter John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). He was, after all, technically a Loyalist, and he left America on the eve of the Revolution, never to return again.

Yet there are mitigating factors. First, while he remained in his homeland, he painted many important figures who would become important in the Revolution, including John Hancock (1765), Paul Revere (1768), Samuel Adams (1772), John Adams (1783), and, on the other side, General Gage (1768). Also of note, he painted the original Epes Sargent (1760), who died before the war.

The other factor in my choice to write about Copley today? There is a poignance to the pain of his separation from America that surely we are all feeling right now. The conflict we typically refer to as “the” Civil War was actually our second one. The American Revolution had neighbors and family members at each others’ throats almost a century earlier. And here we are again.

Copley was a Bostonian. His parents were immigrants, from Ireland, though his mother’s family origins were in Lancashire. The father died or left before he was born. His mother ran a tobacco business, and later married London-born painter Peter Pelham. Pelham died when Copley was only about thirteen, but surely he was an inspiration to him and taught him. (The younger artist Henry Pelham was Copley’s half-brother). At any rate, the connection opened doors for Copley, and he quickly built a reputation throughout the Anglosphere, commanding high commissions. He himself was steadfastly non-political, but his wife’s family were Loyalists, as were other connections, and he refused to severe ties with them. By 1774 the atmosphere had grown so tense (he had been personally threatened by mobs) that Copley emigrated to England. (Another major American painter whom Copley had corresponded with, Benjamin West had moved to England about a decade earlier, although for non-political reasons. He was returning from Italy, stopped over in London on the way home, and liked it so much he decided to stay). At any rate — it’s easy to relate to this painful choice at the moment.

Third, depending on your point of view, Copley continued to do the country of his origin proud. as he enjoyed great professional prestige in his adopted country. He harbored no ill will towards his old friends. Witness the date of his portrait of Adams — right after the Treaty of Paris was signed. And he celebrated the end of the War of 1812 with John Quincy Adams not long before he died.

The trajectory of his son John Copley (1772-1863)trajectory ought to be less palatable to the true American sensibility: he became a Tory politician, was a member of the British Parliament, held various positions in the cabinet, was knighted, and given a barony. Of course, he’d left America when he was only a toddler. Else he might have learned that indispensable American sentiment: NO KINGS!

Now, if you’re like me, and you know this history, you’ve surely wondered how the hell and why they named Copley Square in Boston after him? I don’t that I’d go so far as to call him a traitor, that’s a bit harsh. Let’s just say he chose to just stay out of a conflict he couldn’t just stay out of. (Heed that lesson well, readers). But how could they ever forgive him in Boston? Well the former Art Square wasn’t named Copley Square until 1883, the centennial of the peace, and it was during a time when England and the U.S. were just beginning the real rapprochement (wrought no doubt by Gilded Age capitalists) that later only strengthened during the two World Wars, the Cold War, and later the mutual idiocy of our two governments. In the not-too-distant future: a universal singularity of idiots. Paint a picture of THAT!