JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY 1738-1813
A Man and a Maid
Ink wash, 3 7/8 x 3 1/4 inches
Signed lower right

OPLEY, who already had a successful career in this country, enough to make him the greatest of all eighteenth century American painters, left his native Boston in 1774 for England (and a month later for a year's stay in Italy) in order to study original old master paintings (not just copies or prints after them). Copley sought to infuse his hard-edged style (which had been criticized by Reynolds, who nevertheless admired his work) with a more Rococo painterliness.

Although unusual in its subject matter for Copley, the style of this drawing is compatible with that of other drawings from his English years, and it bears his signature in a form he developed in those years. This work, which depicts a young peddler playfully engaging the attention of a girl, is an enchanting drawing, beautifully sketched.

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