id: 127537 accession number: 1950.216 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1950.216 updated: 2023-04-26 11:23:53.206000 A Hussar Officer on Horseback, 1812. John Singleton Copley (American, 1738–1815). Black and white chalk; sheet: 27.6 x 22.1 cm (10 7/8 x 8 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 1950.216 title: A Hussar Officer on Horseback title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1812 creation date earliest: 1812 creation date latest: 1812 current location: creditline: Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund copyright: --- culture: America, 18th century technique: black and white chalk department: Drawings collection: DR - American 18th Century type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * John Singleton Copley (American, 1738–1815) - artist --- measurements: Sheet: 27.6 x 22.1 cm (10 7/8 x 8 11/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: blue wove paper (faded) watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: verso, lower left, in black chalk: Prince of Wales translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition opening date: 1958-03-03T05:00:00 Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959). title: Romantic Art in Britain: Paintings and Drawings 1760-1860 opening date: 1968-01-09T05:00:00 Romantic Art in Britain: Paintings and Drawings 1760-1860. The Detroit Institute of Arts (organizer) (January 9-February 11, 1968); Philadelphia Museum of Art (March 14-April 21, 1968). title: National Schools of Style opening date: 1983-06-14T04:00:00 National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). title: America Draws opening date: 1984-12-28T05:00:00 America Draws. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1984-March 17, 1985). title: American Drawings from the Permanent Collection opening date: 1998-04-19T00:00:00 American Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 19-July 12, 1998). title: Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2000-08-27T00:00:00 Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Exhibition of Drawings by John Singleton Copley. Harry Shaw Newman Gallery. New York, NY. (1947) 108, no. 9. --- PROVENANCE The artist [1738-1815], London, England. date: 1812-? footnotes: citations: John Singleton Copley, Jr., 1st Baron Lyndhurst (the artist’s son) [1772-1863], London, England. date: ?-1863 footnotes: citations: (The Lyndhurst Library Sale, Christie’s, London, 2/26/1864-2/27/1864, lot 670, likely sold to Edward Basil Jupp.) date: 1864 footnotes: citations: Edward Basil Jupp [1812-1877], London. date: 1864-? footnotes: citations: Passed down through the Amory family: Martha Babcock Amory (granddaughter of the artist) [1812-1880], Boston, MA; Edward Linzee Amory (great-grandson of the artist) [1844-1911], Boston, MA; Mr. Wallace (valet to Edward Linzee Amory), Foxborough, MA. Sold to Charles D. Childs Gallery. date: ?-probably 1950 footnotes: citations: (Charles D. Childs Gallery, Boston, MA, sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art.) date: 1950 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH. date: 1950- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The soldier wears a heavy military headdress called a “busby,” originally worn by Hungarian hussars and adopted by American hussar (light cavalry) regiments during the 1800s. digital description: John Singleton Copley left Boston at the start of the American Revolution in 1775 to pursue his career in England, where he achieved distinction both as a portraitist and a history painter. Following a method often employed in France, Copley generally drew on blue paper to serve as a middle tone, working up the image using black chalk to indicate outlines and shadows, and white chalk for highlights. He made this drawing as an early study for the figure of the prince of Orange in his last major history painting, Battle of the Pyrenees (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), in 1812–15. The figure is garbed in the uniform of a “hussar,” a light cavalry officer equipped with a saber, regiments of which played an important role in the Napoleonic Wars (1803–15). In the final composition, Copley used the pose not for Orange, but for the Duke of Wellington, changing the facial features and adjusting the position of the figure’s arms. wall description: Copley left Boston at the start of the American Revolution in 1775 and pursued the rest of his career in England, where he achieved distinction both as a portraitist and a history painter. In his drawings, following a method often employed in France, Copley generally used blue paper to serve as a middle tone. He could then quickly work up the image using black chalk to indicate outlines and shadows, and white chalk for highlights. He probably made this drawing as a study for one of the background figures in an equestrian portrait of King George III (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) executed between 1808 and 1810. Despite the wonderful quality of the drawing, he never used this figure of a cavalry officer in the portrait. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS page number: url: Amory, Martha Babcock. The Domestic and Artistic Life of John Singleton Copley, RA. Boston, MA: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1882. page number: Mentioned: pp. 270-71 url: Comstock, Helen. “Exhibition of Drawings by Copley.” Panorama by Harry Shaw Newman Gallery 2, no. 9 (May 2, 1947): 100-108. page number: Reproduced: p. 108 url: Prown, Jules David. John Singleton Copley, In England 1774-1815. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966. page number: Mentioned: pp. xxi, 281-83, 436, no. 674 url: Cummings, Frederick J., and Allen Staley. Romantic Art in Britain; Paintings and Drawings, 1760-1860. Nashville, TN: Falcon Press, 1968. page number: Mentioned: p. 98, no. 48 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 184 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n208 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 198 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n218 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1991. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. page number: Reproduced: p.122 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. page number: Mentioned: cat. no. 83,,p. 8, pp. 202-203, p. 295; Reproduced: p. 203 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1950.216/1950.216_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1950.216/1950.216_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1950.216/1950.216_full.tif