• Give the students a mood or an attitude, and ask them to pose how they feel that they can show that attitude.
• Have students create gesture drawings of each other in poses that communicate a mood or attitude.
• Use this artwork as a connection to a proportion lesson on the human body.
• In the style of Hudnall, Jr., students can create a still-life photograph using objects that communicate important aspects of a family member or friend’s personality, life, or culture. As in the Copley painting and Hudnall photograph, students should use one strong light source in their composition to create dynamic values. The objects should be arranged in a way that creates a dialogue and tells a story. 
• In the style of Copley, students can also create a portrait of themselves that tells something about their lives. They can hold, use, or wear one object that speaks to their interest or culture. Guide the students to create strong contrasts and light and shade using a single light source. Students can grid and draw from a photo, which will teach them to analyze proportion. Students can use acrylic paint and use a color scheme to define the mood. They may want to plan out their color scheme in a sketchbook before painting the final product.

One of the major reasons artists create art is to communicate an idea. Understanding how to break apart a work of art to see what is being communicated is a vital part of learning about art and how to be an artist. Students who learn how to truly communicate thoughts and concepts create meaningful works of art that have an impact on society. In portrait art, the skill of capturing personality, mood, or social status, and communicating that to the viewer, adds depth to the work of art.

When learning to analyze these two artworks, students will gain a better understanding of how artists impart their culture. Art records history, and artists speak on their artwork. These artworks are from two different time periods and two very different cultures. This activity of analyzing and comparing will help students make a history and culture connection with their own artwork.

Additionally, we ask students to look at art from artists and other students to produce their own art. In the art classroom, we ask students to synthesize ideas from art into their own work. Thus, teaching them to analyze and compare these two artworks will help them develop a process for comparing, taking ideas, and creating.

• Analyze the way that Copley has used light, shadow, and color in this composition. Where are the major light areas? Where are the major dark areas? What effect do they have on the image as a whole?
• Has Copley chosen naturalistic colors for this painting? Has he used the same color scheme across the entire composition? What effects do his color choices have on the image?
• Look closely at the boy’s clothing. What words would you use to describe it? What materials are used, and how do they communicate information about the boy and his lifestyle?
• Similarly, analyze the setting that this boy is standing in. Where might he be? What do the architecture and landscape evoke?
• The background and setting are fictional, allowing Copley to take full liberty in creating the scene. How does he create a sense of distance and monumentality in this painting’s setting?
• Copley dedicated careful thought to the objects he placed in this portrait. Look closely at the objects surrounding the boy. What are they? What symbolic connotations might they have?

• What do the boy’s pudgy features suggest about his daily life? Why might the patron have wanted to portray him that way?
• Imagine if the boy were seated, or if he were standing rigidly upright. How do you think that change the message of this portrait?
• Similarly, imagine how the mood and message of the portrait might change if Copley had chosen a different setting. What do the stately architecture and faraway landscape add to the painting and its message?
• Why might this boy’s family have wanted his portrait painted? What value would this have had in their lives as a status symbol?
• Though he had no family history of nobility, Copley’s immense success as a painter earned him a spot in the upper echelons of English and American society. Looking at this example of his portraiture, why do you think Copley was in such high demand?
• How might this painting reflect the colonial American class structure, in which family ties were secondary to wealth and taste? How might this portrait have been different if it was intended for an English audience, with their family-based class system?

 

In this portrait, John Singleton Copley depicts a confident, young boy, once thought to be the son of American patriot John Hancock. Though that has since been disproven, the boy’s identity remains a mystery. Still, it is easy to establish his social position. The grand nature of the portrait suggests that he is heir to a wealthy and socially ambitious family. His attire is elegant: gray suit, luxurious blue waistcoat, black necktie and shoes, and a pink buttonhole rose. He has fashionably styled hair and a confident, relaxed demeanor. While the setting is fictitious, it draws from images of classical and ornate architecture seen in popular prints of the time. Familiar objects such as expensive toys and a tri-cornered hat further suggest his aristocratic status.

 

Copley, born to poor Irish immigrants in Boston, rose through the ranks of colonial America’s class structure to become a member of the American aristocracy. Without any formal artistic training, he created his first works of art when he was fifteen, beginning with the most highly respected art form of the time—history painting. However, such works were not in demand in colonial America and Copley was forced to focus on portraiture.

 

This painting is emblematic of Copley’s American portraits. His greatest achievements as a portraitist include his strong contrasts of light and shadow, brilliant use of color, and the ability to capture the distinctive personalities of his sitters. The young boy, vividly depicted against a dark background, displays an easy confidence that was a characteristic endorsed by etiquette books of the time. Copley often utilized portrait d’apparat, the technique of portraying the sitter with items from his or her daily life. For children, this often included toys, such as the badminton battledore and shuttlecock shown here.

 

With no formal social hierarchy or established ruling class, status in colonial America depended on the display of luxury, wealth, and taste rather than on family lineage. Copley is an excellent example of this social order. Even though his parents kept a small tobacco shop on Boston’s wharf, he rose to the highest echelon of society. His children even acquired titles of nobility in England. Although Copley was rewarded with material success and social status, his greatest goal was to be a recognized artist and to raise the status of the artist from craftsman to that of a gentleman. In England, Copley became an internationally recognized history painter who helped revolutionize the genre of modern history painting. Distinguished by a more compelling and theatrical atmosphere and the depiction of multiple narrative scenes of a historical event, Copley, along with Benjamin West and John Trumbull, formed the “triumvirate of history painters” in the 18^th century.