Copley in England

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 1995 by Emily Ballew Neff

Copley did not exhibit at the Royal Academy again until three years later, when he submitted a full-length portrait(17) and the delightful painting of Charles and Shirley Western shown in Plate XI. The boys are shown in the carefree attitude associated with youth as they survey what may be the family property in Essex. As in the Copley and Pepperrell family portraits, some of the accessories point to larger, symbolic concerns. Charles, at the right, proclaims his genteel status and proper upbringing by making a red chalk drawing of a landscape with his drawing portfolio as a support. Shirley interrupts him by pointing to something beyond and behind the viewers left shoulder. As in Watson and the Shark, Copley invites the spectator's question. In view of the freely handled landscape that Charles has sketched, its large and small windblown trees perhaps the very ones in the left background, one might imagine that Shirley is pointing to a more picturesque prospect for Charles to sketch next. This is conjecture, of course, but Copley forces the viewer to guess. It is an indication of his strategy both in history and portrait painting to heighten the dramatic impact of the scene by eliminating the space between the sitter and spectator.

The inclusion of the landscape sketch is highly unusual and testifies to the growing idealization of the English landscape at the very moment that it was radically changing as a result of enclosure and other changes designed to increase agricultural productivity.(18) Landscape became the locus of nationalist and aesthetic values. According to the definitions of the time, rough and varied terrain was "sublime," cultivated rolling hillsides were "beautiful," and a landscape worthy of a painting was "picturesque." By incorporating both the "beautiful" and the "picturesque" into his painting, Copley was clearly not only being sensitive to these cultural fashions, but was also helping to shape them.

The Three Youngest Daughters of George III (Pl. VIII) was Copley's sole contribution to the 1785 Royal Academy exhibition and his only successful experience with royal patronage. The painting displays his characteristic brio in highlighting the delicate textures of gossamer fabrics, the crisp folds of flounced dresses, the sheen of well-groomed spaniels, an ethereal pastel-colored sky, and the porcelain skin and glowing cheeks of young children. It is not just the quality of material things that Copley captures, but an endearing and affectionate view of childhood. Like the Copley and Pepperrell family portraits, this painting is part of the cult of domesticity that emerged in England in the second half of the eighteenth century. John Locke (1632-1704), whose ideas were further developed by Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778),(19) encouraged more affectionate bonds between parent and child. Children were no longer thought of as miniature adults but, in Rousseau's analogy, as blooming plants in need of constant attention and nurturing. Appropriately enough, Rousseau considered outdoor experiences conducive to a healthy child, and Copley's painting pays homage to this notion as well. The portrait also contributed to the cult of royalty that experienced a revival during the reign of George III, who made an effort to show his familiarity with and sympathy for rural life, as well as his geniality and accessibility.(20) In this portrait Copley skillfully combines three preoccupations of the time - nature, children, and images of royalty. Yet the reviews were scathing, led by John Hoppner (1758-1810), whose three individual portraits of the royal princesses had also been poorly reviewed. Hoppner wrote: