John Singleton Copley

John Singleton Copley painted the merchants, ministers and their families of colonial Boston with a sharpness no American painter had reached before. His sitters look directly at you, surrounded by polished mahogany, silk and silver that are painted almost to the point of illusion.

He was born in Boston in 1738 and was largely self-taught. His Boy with a Flying Squirrel of 1765, a portrait of his half-brother Henry Pelham, was shown in London and won him wide praise. In 1774 he left for England and never returned. In London he turned to large modern history paintings, most famously Watson and the Shark of 1778, which shows a real rescue in Havana harbour.

Boy with a Squirrel is still the best introduction to his work. Look at the reflection of the boy’s arm in the tabletop and the glass of water, and at the soft fur of the squirrel. He died in London in 1815.