2005-11
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/31/2005
COPLEY, John Singleton (1737-1815) Major early American artist. Autograph Letter Signed in the third person, 1p. quarto, December 29, 1794, London, with integral address leaf to Mr. John Thane of Panton Street, Hay Market, most certainly the noted art dealer, engraver and antiquarian of that name. He writes to ask for several portraits, which he needs to aid his work on a painting, and so it would seem that Copley was working on one of his historic canvases which incorporated images of several individuals. He also mentions asking permission for Thane to make a print from what must have been one of his own portraits. He writes: “Mr. Copley presents compliments to Mr. Thane. Shall be much obliged to him for the portraits of Sir Henry Kingsby, Sir Benjn. Rudyard, Sir Henry Deering, and Francis Rowse. Mr. C - is now finishing that part of his picture and will soon return the above portraits to Mr. Thane - Mr. C - will not neglect the portrait of Sir H. V[enn] he expects soon to see Lady Darlington and will certainly ask permission for Mr. Thane to make a print from it.” Mounting strip on verso, else Fine. Copley, a Bostonian by birth, had achieved great success as a portraitist while still in his teens. He began to send paintings to England for exhibition and to correspond with Benjamin West while he was still young; West and others urged him to go to London, but it was not until 1774, when Loyalist family connections began to make Copley’s life difficult, that he left Boston. In England he continued to paint portraits, but also began to make historical paintings, a genre which Benjamin West and others had made fashionable. Such paintings usualy included significant individuals who wer not necessarily still alive. Thane was one of the major British suppliers of engraved portraits in his day, and it would have been natural for Copley to turn to him as a source for image of important personages who could not be painted from life. John Singleton Copley was very successful during his lifetime, but, as has been the case with so many artistic trail-blazers, his real significance was not appreciated until later. Copley’s lettes are among the rarest of major American artists.
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