Artwork
Sketch for The Copley Family
Sketch for The Copley Family is an oil painting by the Rococo painting artist John Singleton Copley. It dates from 1776 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
John Singleton Copley executed this oil on canvas in 1776 as a preparatory study for a larger family portrait. The composition presents a domestic interior that opens onto a pastoral landscape, rendered in a warm, golden palette. Though modest in scale, the work demonstrates the artist’s careful planning of figure placement and lighting before committing to the final piece.
Subject & Meaning
At the centre sits a woman in a white dress and hat, cradling one child on her lap while another child stands beside her. The mother’s gaze is directed toward the infant, her hand resting gently on the child’s chest, suggesting tenderness and protection. The standing child looks up to the mother, emphasizing familial affection and the intimate bonds of everyday life.
Technique & Style
Copley employs a loose, sketch-like brushwork that captures the forms and gestures of the figures without the fine detail of a finished portrait. The warm, golden tones unify the interior scene with the distant trees and hills, hinting at the emerging Romantic interest in nature and emotion while retaining the realism characteristic of his earlier American work.
History & Provenance
Created as a study for a larger commission, the painting remained in Copley’s studio before entering private collections in the United States. It has been documented in 19th‑century inventories of American art and later acquired by a museum specializing in colonial-era works, where it serves as a reference for Copley’s preparatory methods.
Artist & collection
Artist
John Singleton Copley (July 3, 1738 – September 9, 1815) was an American-born British painter active in both the Thirteen Colonies and England.
