John Singleton Copley
Study for "The Siege of Gibraltar" (Study for a Figure on a Cannon in the Longboat)

Study for "The Siege of Gibraltar" (Study for a Figure on a Cannon in the Longboat)

Public Domain

Study for "The Siege of Gibraltar" (Study for a Figure on a Cannon in the Longboat)
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Study for "The Siege of Gibraltar" (Study for a Figure on a Cannon in the Longboat)
Datec. 1785–1786
PlaceLondon, England
MediumBlack and white chalk on gray-blue paper
DimensionsSheet: 23 1/8 × 14 1/2 in. (58.7 × 36.8 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.54.30
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Description

This drawing, which relates to the cascade of figures that make up the dramatic rescue tableau on the left side of Copley’s finished canvas, reveals Copley’s varied techniques in making preparatory sketches. The artist has combined both broadly handled, loose suggestions of movement and form and crisply delineated figures on one sheet. He also includes indications of light and shade through firm hatching.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.


ProvenanceCollection of the artist, until 1815; descended to his son, John Singleton Copley, Jr., Lord Lyndhurst (1772–1863), London, to 1864; consigned to [Christie’s, London, The Lyndhurst Library Sale, February 26–27, 1864, lot 671]; Edward Basil Jupp, London; Amory family, Boston, descendants of the artist; given to the artist’s great grandson, Edward Linzee Amory (1844–1911), Boston, until 1911; given to his servant; [Charles D. Childs Gallery, Boston]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1954; given to MFAH.
Exhibition HistoryHarry Shaw Newman Gallery, New York, May, 1947.

“American Adversaries: West and Copley in a Transatlantic World,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 6, 2013–January 20, 2014.

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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