The domestic and artistic life of John Singleton Copley, R.A. With notices of his works, and reminiscences of his son, Lord Lyndhurst, high chancellor of Great Britain

Front matter

THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM LIBRARY

DOMESTKl AND ARTISTIC LIFE

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Preface

The present age may be characterized as one of research rather than of creation. Though of tireless activity its efforts seem largely made to illustrate the past, and by the acumen of many of the most gifted minds to place its discoveries in the clearest light.

In this point of view, apart from any intrinsic value, a family correspondence, commencing in 1774 and continuing to the present day, might well offer some claim to general interest, however simple and unpretending its material. It is hoped, however, that the publication of the letters of the Copley Family, contained in the present work, will effect a higher object than merely to show how quiet gentlefolks, living on different sides of the Atlantic, thought and wrote in the last quarter of the past century and the first half of the present one. If the light it throws on the character of Lord Lyndhurst should silence the calumny that obscured the fame of a great man, and put an end to malignant insinuations that still prejudice his memory, the object of iv PREFACE.

the author will be fully attained. It is hoped some allowance will be made if the granddaughter and niece has indulged in undue warmth while dwelling on the merits of those whom she was early taught to love and reverence ; her only and best excuse must be that she wrote from the heart rather than from the head, and if she has erred on the side of undue partiality, she hopes the fault may be considered a venial one.

The slender background of her own trivial reminiscences blends so naturally with the scenes and persons with whom she was from time to time associated, that she could scarcely give " The Family Picture" without drawing in a few lines of her own life when brought unexpectedly into association with those born and reared in the Old World, under such different social influences from her own.

The above words by the late Mrs. Amory characterize the work which follows, but do not sufficiently indicate the long and affectionate labor which she bestowed, — a labor extending over ten years, and patiently exercised in the hope of bringing together full memorials of her grandfather and her uncle. Mrs. Amory died before the work went to press, but she had completed

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her manuscript, which was prepared for the printer by Dr. Charles Kneeland, of Boston. The engraving prefixed to the vohime is from the portrait of Copley by himself, now in the possession of the artist's great-granddaughter, Mrs. Caspar C. Crowninshield. It is executed by Frederick T. Stuart.

OOE"TEI^TS.

Chapter I. Paqe

Birth. — Parents and their Ancestry. — The Pelhams. — Early Disadvantages. — Love of Color and Materials of Fine Texture. — Puritan Surroundings. — Self-Taught. — Persevering Industry. — Attention to the Minutest Details. — Original Sketches, Finished Pictures. — The " Three Princesses " and Ball at Buckingham Palace. — " The Boy and the Squirrel." — Visit to Henry Pelham. — Copley's Marriage . . • • 1

CHAPTER n.

Mrs. Copley's Ancestry. — " Winslow Farm," afterward occupied by Daniel Webster. — Her Personal Appearance and Character. — Boston Home, and Copley's Work there. — Sympathy with American Independence. — Departure for England in 1774. — First Impressions of the Mother Country. — Kind Reception in London. — Departure for Italy 21

CHAPTER in.

Marseilles to Genoa. — Fine Clothes. — Rome. — The " Transfiguration."— Fears for his Family in Boston. — Naples, and its Works of Art. — Pompeii and Herculaneum. — Description of the Excavations and of Works of Art 33

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Contents

CHAPTER IV.

PAGE

Parma. — His Copy of Correggio's St. Jerome. — The Laocobn and Apollo of the Vatican. — Michael Angelo. — Bologna and Guide's Paintings. — Beginning of the American Struggle for Independence. — Reflections amid the Palaces and Ruins of Rome. — Arrival of his Wife and Family in England ... 49

Chapter II

Mrs. Copley's Ancp:stry. — " Winslow Farm," afterward OCCUPIED BY Daniel Webster. — Her Personal Appearance AND Character. — Boston Home, and Copley's Work there. — Sympathy with American Independence. — Departure FOR England in 1774. — First Iaipressions of the Mother Country. — Kind Reception in London. — Departure for Italy.

With this union Copley's career of prosperity and success in his art was confirmed, and so much influence did this lady exercise, most unconsciously, over the future life of the artist that any record of him without some account of her would be very incomplete. Her mother, the wife of Richard Clarke, was Elizabeth Winslow, who was married May 3, 1732, and died September 3, 1765. She had fourteen children, seven girls and seven boys, of whom Mrs. Copley was the ninth child and fifth daughter.

She inherited from her mother what every native of New England would esteem the fairest birthright, a lineal descent from Mary Chilton, who came from Portsmouth, England, 1620, in the Mayflower, and, according to tradition, was the first woman to set foot on our shores, having

JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY.

jumped from the boat and waded to the rock. She married John Winslow, brother of the first governor of the colony, the most respectable, according to Hutchinson, of all that came from England at that time ; she was thus connected with the celebrated Anne Hutchinson,^ so often mentioned in the early history of the colony, and was one of a family which not only furnished two governors, but was illustrious through a century and a half of colonial history, and has transmitted an unblemished name to the present time. A direct descendant from this family. Admiral Winslow, received great honor in his native country, as is universally known, by the bravery and consummate skill which he displayed in sinking the Alabama off Cherbourg, France, June 19, 1864, by no mere chance, but as the settled purpose of his cruise.

John Winslow's " seat" or " farm," according to the Puritanical fashion of the times, was called "Plain Dealing," and was situated in Plymouth, Mass. Governor Winslow ^ obtained a grant of land, in 1639, at Green's Harbor, now Marshfield, to which he gave the name of Careswell. This estate, some years since, passed into the possession of the late Hon. Daniel Webster, who lived there in the intervals of his public life, interested in agricultural pursuits on a large scale, and exercising a generous hospitality, alike acceptable to the giver and to the receiver; unhappily, the house, with the library and most of its contents, was burned to the ground some years since. To Mrs. Copley was confided the entire supervision of the

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domestic economy, the fulfillment of social duties, and the management of the youthful members of the family. How nobly she executed her trust can be best learned from the testimony of her children ; they cherished her in life with singular tenderness, and revered her memory.

From a crayon sketch, by no means one of his best, taken by Copley early in their married life, and more particularly from " The Family Picture," painted at a later date, it is evident that she possessed much personal lovehness, especially the high forehead and finely arched brow so dear to the artist. Her character was in harmony with her person. She appears to have been one of those rare women in whom the moral and mental qualities, joined to deep sensibility, are so nicely balanced that they exert the happiest influence over the home circle ; cheering and enlivening without dazzling it.

The tie between the artist and his wife was peculiarly close. We constantly meet her familiar lineaments through the whole course of Copley's works: now Mary by the manger, with the. Divine Infant at her breast, in " The Nativity ; " again in " The Family Picture," his clief-d'o&uvre in portraiture ; and in the fabled scene of " Venus and Cupid," with the pale golden hair bound with the blue fillet ; or in the female group in " The Death of Major Pierson," dissolved in an agony of grief and fear as they escape from the scene of carnage and death. Copley is not alone in catching inspiration from the woman of his choice j but few women can

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SO fully have contained the power of imparting inspiration as Copley's wife. This estimate of her character is strengthened by the perusal of a long series of family letters, still extant, commencing in 1800, to a dear and absent daughter in America, and continued, in uninterrupted succession, to the death of the writer in 1836, more than twenty years after that of her husband. It is from this source that the subsequent facts of this sketch are principally drawn.

The locaHty associated with the married life of the artist was a solitary house in Boston, on Beacon Hill, as it was then termed, chosen with his keen perception of picturesque beauty ; his prophecy has been fully verified, that the time would come when that situation would be the favorite site for the homes of the wealthy. After the lapse of niore than a third of a century, we find him fondly looking back to that early home of his married fife ; his last days were embittered by the reflection that it had slipped from his grasp, during his absence, through the incompetency of the agent to whom he had intrusted his affairs. Here Copley followed the practice of the art he so dearly loved, and for which nature had so generously endowed himj here his best portraits, scarcely inferior in stately grace and exquisite finish of drapery, and in the introduction of those accessories that make a picture of a portrait, to the masterly productions of Yandyck, were painted before he had scarcely heard the name of the old Flemish master.

Let us linger a few moments over that modest

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home of art where we can imagine the artist, during the long summer twilight, gazing upon the unbroken outline of the distant Blue Hills, or on the beautiful water view, unobstructed by modern edifices, and on the low line of the horizon as it faded into obscurity or brightened into the starry light of night. In after-years his thoughts fondly reverted to this early home, — his " farm," as he called it, — which extended over eleven acres of what is now the most densely populated portion of his native town. Even he, perhaps, could hardly have told what brilliant conceptions rose to his busy fancy on this favorite spot, or what dreams of fame and fortune beyond the seas ; all we know is that here he dwelt and worked, with what success we have only to ask the many portraits that hang in New England homes or adorn the luxurious mansions of our crowded cities. Colonial dignitaries of church and state, graceful women and lovely children, have left form and feature on his canvas, which holds now the reality, while the originals are less than shadows. Excepting a visit to New York, in 1771, there are few events to relate of our artist's early professional career, and of that visit few details remain ; miniatures of General, then Colonel, Washington, and of some other persons of distinction of that period, were painted by him in that city, and are still in existence.

At length the time arrived when Copley could no longer resist the desire to visit Europe, and behold the works of the great masters of his art. Leaving his aged mother, his favorite brother, his

JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY.

wife and children, of whom his son, the future Lord Chancellor, and two daughters survived to a very advanced age, he embarked for England before the conflict with the mother country commenced, not because of his royalist tendencies, as some of his biographers have asserted, but simply to perfect himself in his art; for Copley's sympathies and judgment were enlisted on the side of liberty and independence during his whole life, as passages in his own and in his friends' correspondence conclusively prove.

His father-in-law, Mr. Clarke, a man of eminence in the community, being agent for the East India Company, as already stated, and a man of remarkable integrity and honorable character, was, on the contrary, a royalist in the fullest sense of the term, and in politics the father and son-in-law " agreed to disagree." Even when party discussions ran high, as they did in those troublous times, the harmony of the family circle was never disturbed. How much this was owing to the influence of Mrs. Copley those who knew her can best imagine. Her father, to whom was consigned the tea, the obnoxious tax on which so infuriated the people, was forced to flee, while the tea was thrown into the sea by the mob disguised as Mohawks.'^ He went to Canada, and thence to England, some of his family remaining in that country to the present day ; the rest of his life was passed with his daughter and son-in-law in London. Until his death, at the advanced age of eighty, he received a pension from the British crown, his own property having

MAREIED LIFE.

been confiscated by the American government on his leaving the country.

Copley embarked for England June, 1774, in the

ship , Captain Robson, and after a short and

pleasant voyage of twenty-nine days landed at Dover. The best account of his visit to Italy and of his own feelings is preserved in his letters to his wife : primitive in expression and full of sensibility, they give a deeper insight into the heart of the writer than the most lengthened analysis ; from time to time we detect the satisfaction of conscious genius which breaks forth while contemplating the miracles of art which he beheld for the first time.

His letter upon his arrival in England contains a heartfelt expression of gratitude for a safe voyage, and deliglit at " the grateful sight of land."

In one of July 11, 1774, the day after he reached London, he writes to his wife, as follows : —

I have scarcely seen anything yet of this superb city, though what I have seen convinces me that I was not mistaken in its grandeur. The country through which I passed yesterday is surpassingly beautiful, and I cannot but infer, from what I saw, that Mr. L was

greatly mistaken when he said that we in America were saints and angels compared to those who inhabit this country ; for it is certain that good fences there will not secure the property of the farmer from being trespassed on in the most shameful way, while in a distance of seventy-two miles of the most public road in England, only wide enough for two carriages to pass, you see a succession of fields of grain, beans, grass, etc., without either fence or hedge to protect them, yet not a spear of

JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY.

either is trampled upon any more than if the trespass would bring immediate destruction on the offender. Every house, with the ground around it, however small and humble, is as neat as possible ; really, in comparison with the people of this country, in the way of living, we Americans seem not half removed from a state of nature. Nor do I find the traveling dear : the whole expense of coming seventy-two miles only amounted to three guineas, my food being as good and well served as any gentleman could wish, and my carriage as comfortable as any chariot in Boston, the horses equally good and well driven by the postilion ; all are changed every stage.

I visited the Cathedral at Canterbury, built by four Saxon kings ; it is a very curious building, and contains several monuments no less so.

July 21st, he continues : —

I have just returned from Mr. West's house, where I took tea ; he accompanied me to the queen's palace, where I beheld the finest collection of paintings I have seen, and, I believe, the finest in England. I also went to Greenwich Hospital, a magnificent building, and to the Park, which has all the beauty the most lively imagination can conceive of ; the ladies made such a show [this to his wife] that it was almost enough to warm a statue and to endue it with life. I have also been to Vauxhall, and seen the ladies assembled, though not in such numbers as later in the season. I went on board the queen's yacht, and here such a profusion of rich ornament presented itself as cannot be described. This is the ship that brought the queen, wife of George III., from Mecklenburg to England ; the cabin is lined with criiason damask ; bed the same. But it is quite impossible to enter into a description of what I see daily. I have had a visit from Sir Joshua Reynolds,^ and from Mr. Strange,^ the cele-

MARRIED LIFE.

brated engraver. Lord Gage is out of town ; I have not, therefore, seen him or Lord Dartmouth, but shall be introduced next week to the latter by Governor Hutchinson.^^

Sir Joshua was then at the head of the Academy and of his art, and delightful both as friend and companion, and well known in the traditions of the Copley family. He exercised an extended hospitality in London, as well as received it, his house being doubly attractive from the genial influence of his sister, its acknowledged mistress. Copley writes later, " You must not be uneasy at my staying here as late as the 10th of next month, as in consequence I shall have a gentleman to accompany me, agreeable in. every respect. Indeed, Mr. West tells me it will be better to remain, and that I shall have enough to do in seeing what will be of advantage. I dine out every day." Thus we find that his reputation preceded his arrival in London.

Again he writes, July 23d, " I have just parted from my brother John j we dined with Mr. Bromfield's cousin, whom you have heard him mention as being connected with Lord North." Copley painted the portraits of both Lord and Lady Nortk Among the anecdotes of the painting-room, one relating to them excited much merriment, and was handed down for the amusement -of a later generation. They enjoyed, if the term may be allowed, the unenviable reputation of being the ugliest couple in England ; when it became the lady's turn to sit to our artist, she expostulated

JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY.

with considerable warmth that " she did not wish to be handed down to posterity as a fright, and that Mr. Copley must do all he could for her." The answer this elicited was never reported. August 17th, he adds : —

My secret is out. I should have mentioned it in my last letter had it not been too uncertain. You remember I wrote you I would not remain to paint any of the king's subjects, but if he should do me the honor to sit to me himself, or the queen, I did not say that I would not paint them. I do not think the delay would lengthen our separation ; perhaps it would shorten it. It would give me at once such an introduction to the court as would be of the utmost importance. The gentleman for whom I am to do them (Mr. or Governor Wentworth will allow me to finish them on my return from Italy. I should therefore paint only the heads now, if I am honored with the sitting, which I think uncertain, although Mr. Hutchinson has asked Lord Dartmouth to request it of the king, as a favor by which he should feel much honored and gratified. Lord Dartmouth will make the request, but if it is delayed beyond this week I am determined not to wait in suspense ; at the same time I think it would be an honor and introduction that seldom fall to the share of even great artists in so short a time.

No farther mention is made of the project of taking the portraits of the king and queen, though we learn later, by his letters, of his having done so. They, are now in the old Wentworth House at Portsmouth.

In the last letter from London, August 25th, he announces his intended departure the next morning for Rome, which was accomplished in company

MARRIED LIFE.

with Mr. Carter, " a gentleman of forty years of age, who understands the languages and is in the same pursuit that I am. At Rome there are about fifty artists from this city. I shall therefore have associates enough ; and this I mention to comfort my friends, as the thought of being alone in a strange country is so disagreeable, but this company renders it ideal."

In the frequent notices of Copley's life, various allusions are made to this gentleman with whom he made his first and only journey to Italy, and much foolish gossip has made its way into print ; uncongenial companions they certainly were, and both parties were undoubtedly glad to separate on their arrival at their destination.

From London, Copley proceeded with his new friend to Genoa, passing through Lyons and Marseilles, the route so familiar to his countrymen a century later. He enters into minute details concerning the conveyance, the old French diligence, — diligence only in name, — his companions, hotels, and the features of the country, as well as public monuments of interest in France under the old Bourbon rule, before the Eevolution and the " Eeign of Terror " had leveled to the ground so many of its historical buildings together with its social distinctions. The higher civilization and more cultivated manners of the people made a delightful impression on his mind, and suggested many contrasts with those of his own new country.

His eye was keenly awake to the beauty of the

JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY.

scenery ; he dwells with enthusiasm on the situation of Lyons : —

Such a prospect [he writes] my eye never before beheld, — such an extended country, so rich and beautiful ! At the farthest reach of sight we could see the Alps very distinctly, rising like clouds above the hills, as well as the mountains of Savoy and Switzerland, and the city under our feet, with the two beautiful rivers, one at the side, the other running through the midst of it.

Very interesting all these descriptions must have been, however prosaic to us, to the quiet family party at home, who absolutely knew as little of Europe as we do at the present day of the interior of the cities of the East ! His impressions on arriving at Genoa are best conveyed in the following letter from that city.

Chapter III. Study In Italy

1774-1775.

Marseilles to Genoa. — Fine Clothes. — Rome. — The "Transfiguration." — Fears for his Family in Boston. — Naples, and its Works of Art. — Pompeii and Hercu- LANEUM. — Description of the Excavations and of Works of Art.

[To Ms wife.]

Genoa, Octobers, 1774.

Could I address you by any name more dear than that of wife, I should delight in using it when I write ; but, how tender soever the name may be, it is insufficient to convey the attachment I have for you.

Although the connection of man and wife as man and wife may have an end, yet that of love, which is pure and heavenly, may be perfected; not that my love is not as perfect as it can be in the present state, but we may be capable of loving more by being more conformed to the infinite Source of love. I am very anxious lest you should suffer by my absence, but I shall make the disagreeable separation as short as possible for my own sake, for, till we are together, I have as little happiness as yourself. As soon as possible you shall know what my prospects are in England, and then you will be able to determine whether it is best for you to go there or for me to return to America. It is unpleasant to leave our dear connections ; but if, in three or four years, I can make as much as will render the rest of our life easy, and 3

JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY.

leave something to our family if I should be called away, I believe that you would think it best to spend that time there ; should this be done, be assured, I am ready to promise you that I will go back and enjoy that domestic happiness which our little " farm " is so capable of affording. I am sure you would like England very much ; it is a very paradise ; but so I think is Boston Common, if the town is what it once was.

I left Marseilles the 26th of September, and reached Toulon on the 28th ; this is a fine seaboard, the best in France. We arrived there about sunset, and meeting four English gentlemen of the navy, with whom we were immediately acquainted, we went with them all over the place, spent a pleasant evening together, and retired to our several apartments, — for we all lodged in the same hotel, — and at five o'clock the next morning continued our journey, and arrived at Antibes on the 30th.

From Marseilles to that place the country is a paradise ; olives, figs, pomegranates, grapes, oranges, lemons, almonds, etc., cover the whole face of the country. We saw the Alps, near us, rising far above the clouds, and in many parts covered with eternal snow, although the weather not many miles from them is as warm as it is with you in June. They seem not more than three or four miles from Antibes, which is a very pretty fortified town, with a good harbor.

We sailed from thence in a small boat to Genoa, which we reached in less than three days. We were rowed almost all the way, keeping so close to the shore that we could talk to those who were on it, leaving the boat when we wanted anything. The coast, which Harry will show you on the map, is very delightful, the land rising from the beach very suddenly to an astonishing height. The hills are like a continued garden from the bottom almost to the top, towns and villages being interspersed close to the sea, on the very beach.

STUDY IN ITALY.

The air is very clear, so thab when we were at Oneille we could see Genoa very distinctly, even the houses that stand by themselves, though the distance is forty miles and more ; but it is very high, on the side of a hill, and the buildings are very white. From the same place we could see Leghorn distinctly, which is across the Gulf of Genoa.

Of all the places I have yet seen, Genoa has the preference. I am happy to be so near the end of my journey ; though not fatigued, I am impatient to get to work, and to try if my hand and my head cannot do something like what others have done, by which they have astonished the world and immortalized themselves, and for which they will be admired as long as this earth shall continue. Genoa is a lovely city ; the streets are paved with flat stones and very clean ; the buildings extremely high, and enriched with sculpture, painting, gilding, etc. If I should be suddenly transported to Boston, I should think it only a collection of wren boxes, it is on so small a scale compared to the cities of Europe, — and much greater remain to be seen. Rome will make Genoa, even, seem small, if I mistake not.

We arrived here yesterday, at noon, took lodgings, and amused ourselves the rest of the day going about some parts of this lovely place, and making some purchases, as it is filled with all kinds of rich merchandise.

I judged it best to take advantage of so good an opportunity, and purchased a suit of clothes for the winter, which I can send to Rome conveniently from here. Perhaps it may amuse you should I inform you what I have bought. I will tell you, then. I have as much black velvet as will make a suit of clothes ; for this I gave about five guineas, and about two more for as much crimson satin as will line it. This is the taste throughout Tuscany, and to-day I bought some lace ruflQes and silk stockings.

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I cannot but wonder how cheap silks are in this city ; the velvet and satin, for which I gave seven guineas, would have cost fourteen in London. . . . You see how I spend my money, but it is necessary to attend to dress, and not unpleasing when business does not interfere. I hope ere long to see some returns for the money I now spend.

I believe you will think I have become a " beau," to dress in so rich a suit of clothes, and truly I am a little tinctured ; but you must remember that you thought I was too careless about my dress. . I wish to reform from all my errors, and particularly from those that are the most painful to you. I have your happiness so much at heart, I would do anything to give you pleasure.

Last evening I went to the play, and this morning to see the paintings in the palace of the Marquis Francesco Maria Balbi, and was much entertained for several hours with the sight of the works of the gt-eatest artists the world has produced ; also to some churches, where there is such a profusion of paintings, sculpture, and rich ornament of various kinds as is not in my power to describe. To-morrow I shall again begin the same business of feasting my eyes.