In 1765, Boston artist John Singleton Copley sent Boy with a Squirrel—a portrait
of his half-brother Henry Pelham—across the Atlantic Ocean; the painting ended up in
the hands of London-based artists Joshua Reynolds and Benjamin West. Because the
work did not depict a patron and it was intended for an artistic audience, Boy with a
Squirrel challenges the functionality of traditional portraiture in mid-eighteenth century
colonial America. In Boy with a Squirrel, Copley uses form, iconography, and
composition as a way to assert to his English counterparts his belonging to the London art
community, showcasing his knowledge and even mastery of British and continental
traditions. Copley communicates his membership in the London art public through his
use through the formal lexicon of his desired audience, effectively Anglicizing his forms.
While Anglicization plays a central role in the emergence of the public self in the mid-
eighteenth-century American colonies, Copley's adaptation of Anglicizing forms
challenges many of the standard conventions. Though the exchange of information
between Britain and the American colonies was slow and incomplete, Copley would have
had many different opportunities to learn about the British and continental traditions he
hoped to demonstrate. The circulation of books and prints, the display of private
collections, John Smibert's copies of masterworks, and the growing awareness of the
Grand Tour all would have informed Copley's awareness of these British tastes. / text
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTEXAS/oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/ETD-UT-2011-08-4151 |
| Date | 20 September 2011 |
| Creators | Conti, Nicole Noel |
| Source Sets | University of Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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