The art of the colonies reflected British trends and a preference for portraits.
1607 - 1776
videos + essays
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John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark
A former orphan, Watson became a wealthy and influential man—after surviving a near-fatal shark attack.
Benjamin West, Penn’s Treaty with the Indians
A founding myth for Pennsylvania and for the United States.
John Singleton Copley, Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Mifflin (Sarah Morris)
On the eve of the American Revolution, a glimpse of politics in portraiture.
The triangle trade and the colonial table, sugar, tea, and slavery
Global trade in a cup of tea: Colonial America, sugar and slavery.
John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere
Well known in his own day as a silversmith, Revere is shown in casual attire, with a teapot brimming with meaning.
John Singleton Copley, A Boy with a Flying Squirrel (Henry Pelham)
Copley was a highly-regarded portrait painter in Boston, but the city was inhospitable to his grander ambitions.
John Singleton Copley, The Copley Family
Copley introduces both his skill as a painter and his genteel and fashionable family to London society.
Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe
West turned the conventions of history painting on their head by choosing a contemporary subject and dress.
Portraits of John and Elizabeth Freake (and their baby)
Forget what you think you know about Puritan fashion and get ready to Freake.
