Figure 1  John Singleton Copley, Reverend Edward Holyoke, Boston, Massachusetts, 1759–1761. Oil on canvas. 50 1/2" x 40 1/2". (Courtesy, Harvard University Portrait Collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts, given to Harvard College by Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Ward, granddaughters of Edward Holyoke, 1829.)

Figure 2  John Singleton Copley, John Bours, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1761. Oil on canvas. 50 1/4" x 40 1/4". (Courtesy, Worcester Art Museum.)

Figure 3  Corner chair, Newport, Rhode Island, ca. 1765. Mahogany with maple and pine. H. 34", W. 30", D. 25". (Courtesy, Rhode Island School of Design.)

Figure 4  Side chair, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1740. Walnut and walnut veneer with maple and white pine. H. 38 5/8", W. 20 3/4", D. 18 1/2". (Chipstone Foundation; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 5  John Singleton Copley, Eleazer Tyng, Boston, Massachusetts, 1772. Oil on canvas. 49 3/4" x 40 1/8". (Courtesy, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., gift of the Avalon Foundation.)

Figure 6  John Singleton Copley, Reverend Thomas Cary, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1770–1773. Oil on canvas. 50" x 40 1/4". (Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, gift of Mrs. Richard Cary Curtis.)

Figure 7  John Singleton Copley, Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Winslow (Jemima Debuke), Boston, Massachusetts, 1773. Oil on canvas. 40 1/2" x 48 3/4". (Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Maxim Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of Eighteenth-Century American Arts.)

Figure 8  Anonymous, Robert Reid’s Studio, ca. 1890. Photographic copy print. (Courtesy, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.)

Figure 9  John Singleton Copley, Joseph Sherburne, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1767. Oil on canvas. 50" x 40". (Courtesy, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Amelia B. Lazarus Fund, 1923.)

Figure 10  John Singleton Copley, William Vassall and His Son Leonard, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1770–1772. Oil on canvas. 49 7/8" x 40 7/8". (Courtesy, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III.)

Figure 11  Side chair attributed to George Bright, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1765. Mahogany and maple. (Courtesy, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.)

Figure 12  John Singleton Copley, Mrs. Timothy Rogers (Lucy Boylston), Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1766–1767. Oil on canvas. 50" x 40". (Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, bequest of Barbara Boylston Bean.)

Figure 13  John Singleton Copley, Jonathan Belcher, Boston, Massachusetts, 1756. Oil on canvas. 47" x 39". (Courtesy, Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.)

Figure 14  John Faber Jr. after Thomas Hudson, The Honourable William Fortesque, London, England, 1741. Mezzotint. 14 1/4" x 10 1/8". (Courtesy, National Portrait Gallery, London.)

Figure 15  John Singleton Copley, Mrs. Daniel Rea and Her Daughter, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1757. Oil on canvas. 49" x 39". (Courtesy, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio.)

Figure 16  John Singleton Copley, The Two Sisters of Christopher Gore, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1755. Oil on canvas. 29 1/2" x 39 1/2". (Courtesy, Gore Place, Waltham, Massachusetts.)

Figure 17  John Faber Jr. after J. B. Van Loo, Alexander Pope, 1742. Mezzotint. 12 1/8" x 10". (Courtesy, Trustees of the British Museum, London.)

Figure 18  John Smibert, Sir Francis Grant and His Family, Edinburgh, 1718. Oil on canvas. 85" x 125". (Registered with the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and in the collection of Sir Archibald Grant.)

Figure 19  John Smibert, Sir Francis Grant and His Family, Edinburgh, 1718. Oil on canvas. 17" x 27 3/4". (Registered with the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and in the collection of Sir Archibald Grant.)

Figure 20  John Smibert, Benjamin Morland, London, 1724. Oil on canvas. 95 1/4" x 59". (Courtesy, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.)

Figure 21  John Smibert, George Berkeley, London, ca. 1726. Oil on canvas. 41" x 29 1/2". (Courtesy, National Portrait Gallery, London.)

Figure 22  John Smibert, Mrs. Hugh Hall, Boston, 1733. Oil on canvas. 50 1/8" x 40 1/8". (Courtesy, Denver Art Museum.)

Figure 23  John Smibert, Daniel Oliver, Boston, 1729. Oil on canvas. 50" x 39 1/8". (Collection of Andrew Oliver Jr., Daniel Oliver, Mrs. Daniel Morley.)

Figure 24  George Vertue, Self-Portrait, London, 1741. Drawing in pencil and red chalk. 9 1/4" x 5 1/2". (Courtesy, National Portrait Gallery, London.)

Figure 25  George Vertue after John Vanderbank, Sir Isaac Newton, London, 1726. Engraving on paper. 8 5/8" x 7 1/4". (Courtesy, National Portrait Gallery, London.)

Figure 26  Joseph Badger, Cornelius Waldo, Boston, 1750. Oil on canvas. 50" x 40". (Courtesy, Worcester Art Museum, Gift of Hester Newton Wetherell Estate.)

Figure 27  John Smibert, Francis Brinley, Boston, 1729. Oil on canvas. 50" x 39 1/4". (Courtesy, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund.)

Figure 28  John Smibert, Mrs. Francis Brinley, Boston, 1729. Oil on canvas, 50" x 39 1/4". (Courtesy, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund.)

Figure 29  John Singleton Copley, Charles Pelham, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1753–1754. Oil on canvas. 36" x 28". (Private collection.)

Figure 30  John Singleton Copley, Daniel Hubbard, Boston, Massachusetts, 1764. Oil on canvas. 50" x 39 3/4". (Courtesy, Art Institute of Chicago, Purchase Fund.)

Figure 31  John Singleton Copley, John Hancock, Boston, Massachusetts, 1765. Oil on canvas. 49 1/2" x 40 1/2". (Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, deposited by the City of Boston.)

Figure 32  John Singleton Copley, Thomas Greene, Boston, Massachusetts, 1758. Oil on canvas. 50" x 40". (Courtesy, Cincinnati Art Museum, gift of Mrs. Carlos A. Hepp.)

Figure 33  John Singleton Copley, Nicholas Boylston, Boston, Massachusetts, 1767. Oil on canvas. 49" x 40". (Courtesy, Harvard University Portrait Collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts, bequest of Ward Nicholas Boylston, 1828.) The sitter wears a cut-velvet cap that matches the table covering.

Figure 34  Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Charles I, Queen Henrietta Maria, Prince Charles, and Princess Mary, London, 1632. Oil on canvas. Dimensions not recorded. (Courtesy, Royal Collection, London, England.)

Figure 35  Peter Tillemans, An Artist’s Studio, London, ca. 1716. Oil on canvas. Dimensions not recorded. (Castle Museum, Norwich, England.)

Figure 36  John Singleton Copley, Miles Sherbrook, New York, ca. 1771. Oil on canvas, 49 1/2" x 39". (Courtesy, Chrysler Museum of Art, gift of Walter P. Chrysler Jr., in memory of his grandparents, Anna-Maria Breymann and Henry Chrysler.)

Figure 37  John Singleton Copley, John Greene, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1769. Oil on canvas. 49 1/8" x 39 1/2". (Courtesy, Currier Art Museum, Manchester, New Hampshire, Museum Purchase: Currier Funds.)

Figure 38  John Singleton Copley, Mary and Elizabeth Royall, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1758. Oil on canvas. 57 1/2" x 48". (Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Julia Knight Fox Fund, 1925.)

Figure 39 
 John Singleton Copley, Epes Sargent, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1760. Oil on canvas, 49 7/8" x 40". (Courtesy, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., gift of the Avalon Foundation.)

Figure 40  John Singleton Copley, Mrs. William Eppes (Abigail Pickman; later Mrs. Sylvester Gardiner), ca. 1769. Oil on canvas. 50" x 40". (Courtesy, Brooklyn Museum.)

Figure 41  Painting, printed and sold for F. Bull on Ludgate Hill, J. Boydell in Cheapside, and W. Herbert on London Bridge, 1766–1775. Line etching. 9 3/4" x 13 3/4". (Courtesy, Winterthur Museum.)

Figure 42  John Singleton Copley, Mrs. Thomas Gage (Margaret Kemble), New York, 1771. Oil on canvas. 50" x 40". (Courtesy, Putnam Foundation, Timken Museum of Art.)

Figure 43  John Singleton Copley, Portrait of a Lady, New York, 1771. Oil on canvas. 48 1/2" x 39 1/2". (Courtesy, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum Acquisition Fund.)

Figure 44  Titian (Tiziano Vecelli), Venus of Urbino, Venice, 1504. Oil on canvas. 46 3/4" x 64 7/8". (Uffizi, Florence, Italy, Alinari Art Resource, New York.)

Figure 45  John Singleton Copley, Dorothy Quincy, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1772. Oil on canvas. 50" x 39". (Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Charles H. Bailey Fund and partial gift of Anne B. Loring.)

Figure 46  John Singleton Copley, Mrs. John Powell, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1764. Oil on canvas. 50" x 40". (Courtesy, Cleveland Museum of Art, gift of Ellery Sedgwick Jr., in memory of Mabel Cabot Sedgwick, 1994.)

Figure 47  John Singleton Copley, Reverend John Ogilvie, New York, 1771. Oil on canvas. 50" x 40". (Courtesy, Trinity Church, New York.)

Figure 48  John Singleton Copley, Moses Gill, Boston, Massachusetts, 1764. Oil on canvas. 49 3/4" x 39 1/2". (Courtesy, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Jesse Metcalf Fund.)

Figure 49  John Singleton Copley, Robert Hooper, Boston, Massachusetts, 1767. Oil on canvas. 50" x 39 1/4". (Courtesy, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Henry S. McNeil Collection, given in loving memory of her husband by Lois F. McNeil and in honor of their parents by Barbara and Henry A. Jordan, Marjorie M. Findlay, and Robert D. McNeil.)

Figure 50  John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere, Boston, Massachusetts, 1768. Oil on canvas. 35" x 28 1/2". (Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, gift of Joseph W. Revere, William B. Revere, and Edward H. R. Revere.)

Figure 51  John Faber Jr., St. John, Apostle and Evangelist, 1754. Mezzotint, 12 3/4" x 8 3/4". (Courtesy, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts.)

Figure 52  John Singleton Copley, Thomas Hancock, Boston, Massachusetts, 1764–1766. Oil on canvas. 95 5/8" x 59 1/2". (Courtesy, Harvard University Portrait Collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts, given by John Hancock, nephew of Thomas Hancock, to Harvard College, 1766.)

Figure 53  John Singleton Copley, Jeremiah Lee, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1769. Oil on canvas. 95" x 59". (Courtesy, Wadsworth Atheneum, Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund.)

Figure 54  John Faber Jr. after John Vanderbank, Sir William Lee, London, 1738. Mezzotint, 18 5/8" x 13 3/4". (Courtesy, Trustees of the British Museum, London.)

Figure 55  The Prodigal Son Receiving His Patrimony, published and sold by Shelton & Kensett, Cheshire, England, 1814. Line etching. 14 3/4" x 10 7/8". (Courtesy, Winterthur Museum.) The cartoonish chair in this image resembles the one in Copley’s portrait of Thomas Hancock (see fig. 52).

Figure 56  John Singleton Copley, Mrs. Seymour Fort(?), London, ca. 1778. Oil on canvas. 49 1/2" x 39 5/8". (Courtesy, Wadsworth Atheneum.)

Figure 57  John Singleton Copley, The Copley Family, 1776/1777. Oil on canvas. 72 1/2" x 90 1/4". (Courtesy, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Andrew W. Mellon Fund.)

Figure 58  John Singleton Copley, The Copley Family, ca. 1788. Oil on canvas. 20 1/2" x 25 1/2". (Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Henry H. and Zoe Oliver Sherman Fund and gift of Daniel and Robert Amory.)

Figure 59  Joseph Steward, Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, Hampton, Connecticut, 1793–1796. Oil on canvas. 79 1/8" x 69 7/8". (Courtesy, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Commissioned by the Trustees of Dartmouth College.)

Figure 60  Ralph Earl, Martha Tennent Rogers and Daughter, Hartford, Connecticut, 1788. Oil on canvas. 34 1/8" x 29". (Courtesy, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch.)

Figure 61  Ralph Earl, Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, New York, 1787. Oil on canvas. 31 3/4" x 26 7/8". (Courtesy, Museum of the City of New York, gift of Mrs. Alexander Hamilton and General Pierpont Morgan Hamilton.)

Figure 62  John Trumbull, The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, New York and London, 1787–1820. Oil on canvas. 21 1/8" x 31 1/8". (Courtesy, Yale University Art Gallery.)