JOHN SINGLETON

See also:

• JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY (1737—1815)

COPLEY (1737—1815)  , English historical painter, was born of Irish parents at Boston, Massachusetts . He was self-educated, and commenced his career as a portrait-painter in his native city . The germ of his reputation in England was a little picture of a boy and squirrel, exhibited at the Society of Arts in 1760 . In 177,4 he went to Rome, and thence in 1775 came to England . In 1777 he was admitted associate of the Royal Academy; in 1783 he was made Academician on the exhibition of his most famous picture, the " Death of Chatham," popularized immediately by Bartolozzi's elaborate engraving; and in 1790 he was commissioned to paint a portrait picture of the defence of Gibraltar . The " Death of Major Pierson," in the National Gallery, also deserves mention . Copley's powers appear to greatest advantage in his portraits . He was the father of Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst .