Study for "The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar", 1783-1786

Not on View

Medium

graphite with white chalk on blue-gray laid paper

Dimensions

sheet: 36.51 × 56.83 cm (14 3/8 × 22 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase)

Accession Number

2014.136.187

Artists / Makers

John Singleton Copley (artist) American, 1738 - 1815

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower right in graphite: (not deciphered) Siege of Gibaltrar/3 6 0 12; along the upper edge in graphite: 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2; along the right sheet edge in graphite: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1; along the lower edge in graphite: 6 5 3 2 1; verso lower right corner in graphite: Siege of Gibraltar

Provenance

the artist, London; Lord Lyndhurst (John Singelton Copley, Jr.), London, 1815; (Lyndhurst Library Sale, Christie's, London, 1864); Edward Basil Jupp, London; Amory Family, Boston, MA; (Harry Shaw Newman Gallery, New York); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1948; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art

Associated Names

Copley, John Singleton
Copley, Jr., John Singleton
Corcoran Gallery of Art
Newman Gallery, Harry Shaw

Exhibition History

1947: Exhibition of Drawings by Copley, Harry Shaw Newman Gallery, New York, 1947

1952: Drawings by American Masters, Howard University, Washington, DC, 1952

1954: George Washington's World, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, 1954

1980: The Human Form: Contemporary American Figure Drawing and the Academic Tradition, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1980, no. 1

1981: Early America on Paper: Prints and Drawings, 1750-1850, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1981

1983: American Master Drawings from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1983

1986: American Masters: Works on Paper from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, 1986-1988, pp. 10-13, 36, no. 1, repro

Bibliography

1966: Prown, Jules David. John Singleton Copley, vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966, p. 449, fig. 513 (as "Three Figures Pulling on Spanish Colors").

1983: Simmons, Linda Crocker and with the assistance of Adrianne J. Humphrey, et al. American Drawings, Watercolors, Pastels, and Collages in the Collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, DC: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1983: p. 1, no. 2.