Copley, John Singleton (1738–1815)

US painter. He was the leading portraitist of the colonial period, but from 1775 lived mainly in London, where he painted lively historical scenes such as The Death of Major Pierson (1783; Tate Gallery, London).

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Copley studied in Rome in 1774, and then moved to England, where he was a pupil of the American artist Benjamin West. Having established himself as a portrait painter, he turned to historical scenes, some of which are unusual in that they portray dramatic events of his time, as in Brook Watson and the Shark 1778 (National Gallery, Washington, DC).