John Singleton Copley

Biography

John Singleton Copley (1738–1815) came to be celebrated as one of the preeminent portraitists of his day, and the London Borough of Croydon became a place where he spent his final years after returning from a formative childhood in Boston.

He brought to canvas a keen eye for detail and a luminous touch that immortalized sitters from both sides of the Atlantic, bridging communities through art and winning admiration at the Royal Academy before he died in 1815.