Past Exhibition

John Singleton Copley in England

A knight in armor strides toward two women wearing long gowns in a balustraded terrace in this horizontal painting. The three people all have smooth, pale skin with flushed cheeks. To our left, the man’s entire body is covered in armor except for his face under a raised visor. He has blue eyes, and his rose-red lips are slightly parted. His helmet is topped with a plume of white feathers. There is a red cross on his chest and red fabric wraps over his far shoulder and billows down his back to his shins. He holds a round shield edged in red up over his head with his far arm, and holds a lance down by his side with the hand closer to us. A sword hangs from his far hip, and he strides forward onto his other leg. He gazes to our right. In the right half of the composition, the two women stand facing each other. Both have long, curly gray hair, delicate noses, gray eyes under arched brows, and their coral-pink lips are parted. At the center of the painting, one woman, Fidelia, wears a long-sleeved, floor-length white gown tied at the waist with a butter-yellow sash. White cloth wraps around her head and through her hair, and it flutters behind her. She turns her head to look up and to our left, and her head is surrounded by a vibrant, yellow glow. In her right hand, closer to us, she holds up a gold chalice with a snake curling from the cup, its mouth open and tongue flicking out near her hair. She holds a brown book in her other hand, down in front of her hips. The second woman, Speranza, faces Fidelia but she looks up and to our left. Speranza’s topaz-blue, satin dress has a gauzy white collar and cuffs, and the skirt pools around her feet. A sky-blue ribbon wraps through Speranza’s hair. With her far hand, Speranza touches Fidelia’s wrist near the book. With her other hand, closer to us, Fidelia gathers her dress and braces the curving prongs of a silver anchor across that arm. The trio is framed by tall trees on the left and columns swathed with burgundy-red curtains on the right. A balustrade between the man in armor and woman in white is silhouetted against a salmon-pink sky along the horizon. A screen of white clouds float against the aquamarine-blue sky above.
John Singleton Copley, The Red Cross Knight, 1793, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Gordon Dexter, 1942.4.2

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    West Building, Main Floor, Galleries 57, 58, 59
A knight in armor strides toward two women wearing long gowns in a balustraded terrace in this horizontal painting. The three people all have smooth, pale skin with flushed cheeks. To our left, the man’s entire body is covered in armor except for his face under a raised visor. He has blue eyes, and his rose-red lips are slightly parted. His helmet is topped with a plume of white feathers. There is a red cross on his chest and red fabric wraps over his far shoulder and billows down his back to his shins. He holds a round shield edged in red up over his head with his far arm, and holds a lance down by his side with the hand closer to us. A sword hangs from his far hip, and he strides forward onto his other leg. He gazes to our right. In the right half of the composition, the two women stand facing each other. Both have long, curly gray hair, delicate noses, gray eyes under arched brows, and their coral-pink lips are parted. At the center of the painting, one woman, Fidelia, wears a long-sleeved, floor-length white gown tied at the waist with a butter-yellow sash. White cloth wraps around her head and through her hair, and it flutters behind her. She turns her head to look up and to our left, and her head is surrounded by a vibrant, yellow glow. In her right hand, closer to us, she holds up a gold chalice with a snake curling from the cup, its mouth open and tongue flicking out near her hair. She holds a brown book in her other hand, down in front of her hips. The second woman, Speranza, faces Fidelia but she looks up and to our left. Speranza’s topaz-blue, satin dress has a gauzy white collar and cuffs, and the skirt pools around her feet. A sky-blue ribbon wraps through Speranza’s hair. With her far hand, Speranza touches Fidelia’s wrist near the book. With her other hand, closer to us, Fidelia gathers her dress and braces the curving prongs of a silver anchor across that arm. The trio is framed by tall trees on the left and columns swathed with burgundy-red curtains on the right. A balustrade between the man in armor and woman in white is silhouetted against a salmon-pink sky along the horizon. A screen of white clouds float against the aquamarine-blue sky above.
John Singleton Copley, The Red Cross Knight, 1793, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Gordon Dexter, 1942.4.2

Overview: 27 portraits and history paintings and 17 related drawings were on view, created by American-born artist John Singleton Copley after he immigrated to England in 1774. The works in the exhibition were from the Gallery's collection and from other American and British institutions, including the Tate Gallery, London, which loaned The Death of Major Peirson, 6 January 1781.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Curators were Nicolai Cikovsky Jr. and Franklin Kelly, curators of American and British paintings at the National Gallery, and Emily Ballew Neff, assistant curator of American painting and sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. William Pressly, expert in 18th-century British painting and professor at the University of Maryland, served as advisor. A traveling exhibition of Copley's American portraits was on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, concurrent with the National Gallery show. Both exhibitions moved on to Houston.

Sponsor: The exhibition was made possible by Republic National Bank of New York, Safra Republic Holdings, S.A., and Banco Safra, S.A., Brazil. Additional support was provided by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Attendance: 74,354

Catalog: John Singleton Copley in England, by Emily Ballew Neff with William L. Pressly. Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1995.

Other Venues:

  • Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 02/04/1996–04/28/1996

You may also like

Exhibition:  Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985

Exhibition:  The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art