1812
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
A Hussar Officer on Horseback is a 1812 by John Singleton Copley, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A man in a fancy military uniform sits on a rearing white horse. The horse’s muscles strain, and the rider grips the reins tight. Copley made this drawing as a study for a bigger painting. He used blue paper to start—it’s like a mid-tone, so he could add shadows with black chalk and light with white. This was a common trick in France, but Copley did it in England after leaving America. To see how he turned sketches into finished works, look up *John Singleton Copley (American, 1738–1815)*.
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…
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.
Read the full account in the museum source.
John Singleton Copley (July 3, 1738 – September 9, 1815) was an American-born British painter active in both the Thirteen Colonies and England.
See the richer artist page
