John Bours

Artist John Singleton Copley (American, 1738–1815)

Dateabout 1763

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 127.6 × 101.9 cm (50 1/4 × 40 1/8 in.)
framed: 142.2 × 117.8 cm (56 × 46 3/8 in.)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineFunds from the bequest of Mrs. Hester Newton Wetherell

Terms

Object number1908.7

Label TextIn an era when portraiture was the primary subject of colonial painters in America, Copley set an unprecedented standard for conveying both the physical and the psychological presence of his sitters. Strategically employing light and shadow to enhance the mood, Copley depicts John Bours as a contemplative scholar seated in a Queen Anne-style chair, legs crossed, and gazing off the canvas. The partially unbuttoned waistcoat and relaxed right arm holding a partially open book further exudes the immediacy of informality. A virtuoso at representing textures, Copley differentiates between the visual effects of the soft, brown velvet suit, the crisp, white cuffs, and the hard sheen of the mahogany chair. These luxurious indicate the sitter’s wealth accrued from participation in global trade. As a merchant in Rhode Island, Bours imported goods from Europe and the West Indies, including textiles, tea, coffee, sugar, indigo, and spices—all commodities that benefitted from unpaid labor. New research led to the discovery that the sitter counted among his assets Cato Bours, an enslaved man, whose value was given as £120. Source: “An Account of the Negro Slaves Inlisted into the Continental Battalions, and to Whom They Did Belong, with the Valuation of Each Slave and Notes Given. 1778,” in Rhode Island Historical Tracts, ed. Sidney Smith Rider (Providence, 1877). ProvenanceCopley Gallery, Boston MA

On View

Not on view