John Greenleaf

John Singleton Copley

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

While there has never been any doubt of Copley’s innate talent, these portraits give new meaning to the word “precocious.” At about the age of fifteen, with no formal training and very little opportunity to have studied acclaimed works of art, Copley not only could paint competently but also knew how to serve his patrons best: with accurate but richly embellished likenesses. These handsome siblings (see also 2002.612), offspring of John and Priscilla Brown Greenleaf of Boston, wear just the sort of elaborate, inventive costumes that became the artist’s forte. Copley’s source for John’s exotic cap and pose was a print after Sir Godfrey Kneller’s portrait of Lord Bury as a child.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art