1765
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Nathaniel Hurd is a 1765 unspecified by John Singleton Copley, a American Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a man in a loose shirt and a red turban, leaning forward with a relaxed smile. This portrait feels different from most of the time. People usually wore stiff wigs and formal clothes, but Hurd’s shirt is open, and his turban looks like something you’d wear at home. Copley painted him like a friend, not a client. The warm light on his face makes it feel real, not posed. Look up other portraits by John Singleton Copley (American, 1738–1815) to see how he changed American art.
Hurd was a prominent silversmith and engraver in Boston, and the warm gaze and unforced smile in his portrait by Copley suggest the friendship between the two artists. Hurd's open-collared shirt, as well as the rakishly tilted turban that covers his shaved head in place of a ceremonial powdered wig, create an air of informality that is unusual for a portrait of this time.
The artist Copley’s in-laws were consignees for the cargo dumped during the Boston Tea Party.
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.
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