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Artists' Eyes on the American Revolution:

John Singleton Copley - Painting Realism and History

John Singleton Copley (July 3, 1738– September 9, 1815) was an American-born painter, active in both the Thirteen Colonies and England.

On July 4, 2026, America will celebrate 250 years of independence. 

This is part 3 of a 3 part series.

Created for America250, and including works of art from the tristate region, this talk will follow the career of the greatest and most influential painter in colonial America, John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Showing artistic talent as a teenager, Copley prospered in America by creating hundreds of portraits that were both striking in their precise realism and the importance of some of their sitters, such as Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams.

Rising political turmoil in America, along with Copley’s dissatisfaction with the colonies’ limited art scene, brought him to London in 1774, followed by a trip to Europe.

Copley then continued to create portraits of the elite in England, but also began producing something new—large, realistic, and dramatic scenes of contemporary history, often accompanied by prints to bring their images to the mass market.

Presenter: Dr. Michael Norris got his BA in classics from the University of California at San Diego and his MA in classics and Ph.D. in art history at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He spent twenty years at the Cloisters Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and has lectured on trips all over the world. He lives in Teaneck, New Jersey. 

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