Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Copley depicted contemporary merchant princes clergymen and military officers and their wives as well as Paul Revere Samuel Adams John Hancock and other political leaders. His splendidly painted portraits provided his sitters Loyalists and revolu- tionaries alike with the opulent images they craved and brought him spectacular material success. This book which accompanies an important exhibition of Copley’s work organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston is the first major study of the artist published since 1966. Like the exhibition it focuses on the large-scale paintings miniatures and pastels Copley executed before he moved to London on the theory that his American oeuvre is unified by the circumstances of its produc- tion and is stylistically and intellectually distinct from his English pictures. In studies meant for both general and scholarly audiences the authors place the work in its histori- cal and social context to confront issues beyond those of the artist and his pictorial talent. Central among these issues is the premise that Copley’s paintings not only responded to but also helped to shape pre-Revolutionary culture in America. Pursuing the idea that his portraits were key agents in the forging of late colonial identity class and character the authors show how his pictures laden with the English-style luxury goods that were the signs of elite status. (OS)