From Publishers Weekly
Solid scholarship and lavish production distinguish this study of one of Colonial America's leading painters, John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Designed to accompany the currently touring exhibition of Copley's American works, this volume makes the case for the early Copley's importance both as an aesthetic innovator and as representative of his time and place. From his iconic portrait of Paul Revere at work to his haunting depiction of Mrs. Thomas Gage, the British general's unhappy American wife, the works that Copley produced before abandoning his native Boston for Europe in 1774 gleam with technical brilliance and have historical significance. Notable contributions to this catalogue include an overview of Copley scholarship by Rebora, associate curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; two lucid essays by Staiti, professor of art history at Mount Holyoke College, which treat the relationship between Copley and his commercial milieu in Boston; and studies by Met curators Marjorie Shelley and Morrison H. Heckscher, who examine Copley's pastels and the frames in which he set his early works, respectively. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This ponderously impressive tome examines colonial painter Copley's American-produced oeuvre. The artist's life and work is covered until his relocation to London in 1774. Based on a large exhibition organized by New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, this is the first monograph to appear on Copley since 1966. Essays by noted American art historians trace the artist's training and subsequent production of oil paintings, pastels, and miniatures. The scholarly re-creation of issues pertinent to the artist and his sitters' social environment is matchless, and the illustrations alone are well worth the book's price. However, the text is not an easy narrative, perhaps because of its authoritative tone. This study is most appropriate for academic and specialized library collections with an emphasis on Early American art and culture.?Paula A. Baxter, NYPLCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Copley was an American painting original, producing several hundred portraits of well-to-do Bostonian colonials. Some canvasses are widely recognized, as of patriots Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, or John Hancock, but the Copley corpus is what fascinates art historians for its window on the merchant class in prerevolutionary society. As a purveyor to that class, Copley produced miniatures, pastels, and crayons, and even frames at various rates (one writer here reprints his bills). Viewers at this distance prefer his best work in oils, however, which the authors critique for their antecedent sources and the contemporary fashions they depict; Copley's images of costumery clothe the self-assured nonchalance his subjects wished to convey, and his best portraits (as of the Boylston siblings) are magnetic. The Copley exhibition appears this fall in New York, Boston, Milwaukee, and Houston. If libraries there and elsewhere wish to splurge, this informative and glossy album should please many. Gilbert Taylor

From Book News, Inc.
A lavish, illustrated volume published to accompany an exhibition of Copley's work that will be traveling to several cities during 1996. The focus is on the paintings, miniatures, and pastels that Copley, the supreme portraitist of the colonial era, produced before he moved to London in 1774. Four principal essays place the work in historical and social context and bring new critical methods to bear upon the study of portraits and portraiture; four shorter essays treat various aspects of Copley's art and techniques. Catalog entries detail the sitters' lives and the ways in which Copley enhanced his subjects' status and presence. 10x12.25" Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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 it's production and is stylistically and intellectually distinct from his English pictures.

Lavish illustrations of the paintings, pastels, and miniatures in the exhibition; comparative works; maps; and photographs accompany the texts. A chronology, a bibliography that includes references of general and specific interest, and an index are included.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

This ponderously impressive tome examines colonial painter Copley's American-produced oeuvre. The artist's life and work is covered until his relocation to London in 1774. Based on a large exhibition organized by New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, this is the first monograph to appear on Copley since 1966. Essays by noted American art historians trace the artist's training and subsequent production of oil paintings, pastels, and miniatures. The scholarly re-creation of issues pertinent to the artist and his sitters' social environment is matchless, and the illustrations alone are well worth the book's price. However, the text is not an easy narrative, perhaps because of its authoritative tone. This study is most appropriate for academic and specialized library collections with an emphasis on Early American art and culture.-Paula A. Baxter, NYPL

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