Through an intimate narrative of the life of painter John Singleton Copley, award-winning historian Jane Kamensky reveals the world of the American Revolution, rife with divided loyalties and tangled sympathies.
Famed today for his portraits of patriot leaders like Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, Copley is celebrated as one of America's founding artists. But, married to the daughter of a tea merchant and seeking artistic approval from abroad, he could not sever his own ties with Great Britain. Rather, ambition took him to London just as the war began. His view from abroad as rich and fascinating as his harrowing experiences of patriotism in Boston, Copley's refusal to choose sides cost him dearly. Yet to this day, his towering artistic legacy remains shared by America and Britain alike.
With a singular focus on Copley and a more vibrant prose style, Kamensky probes deeply into such matters as family relations, local politics and the psychological costs of failing to realize one's ambitions.--Virginia DeJohn Anderson "New York Times Book Review"
Far from a born partisan, Copley could have gone either way. Kamensky's great accomplishment is to leave readers pulled by different audiences, demands, and political allegiances right along with him.--Caitlin Fitz "The Atlantic"
[I]ntelligent and substantive.--Wendy Smith "Boston Globe"
Jane Kamensky is the author of A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley, winner of the New-York Historical Society's American History Book Prize, and professor emerita of history at Harvard University. She is the president of Monticello/the Thomas Jefferson Foundation and has previously served as director of the Schlesinger Library at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute.