Thaddeus Burr 1758 - 1760

Curator: Look at him, Editor, perched so casually… almost a little aloof, wouldn’t you say? Editor: The aloofness practically screams privilege, doesn’t it? That silky waistcoat alone probably cost more than a working man's yearly wage back then. Curator: Well, yes… This is "Thaddeus Burr," painted between 1758 and 1760 by John Singleton Copley. He was quite the prominent portraitist in colonial America. You sense a stillness, though, amidst the luxury? Editor: Definitely a staged stillness, all that satin... and that hard, cold stone. Look at how Copley uses oil paint; thick layers, almost sculptural, on that bizarre fountain. Were all of these guys leaning on stuff like they do in portraits of the time? It's like he’s actively participating in the creation of his own ideal image. Curator: The hand placement—slightly theatrical. He's deliberately presenting an image of cultivated leisure. Perhaps it was crucial for social standing in that period? There is such interesting artifice to it all... And he has really captured something enduring in this image; isn’t there a universal wish to be perceived as cultivated, stable? Editor: Precisely! And that wish is directly tied to who can afford the best materials and the best labor to make it happen. Consider the pigments—expensive imported blues for that gleaming vest! Even the stone is a stand-in. How much cheaper it had to have been to recreate with paint on wood versus hauling in carved statuary! Copley was excellent. And a total cog in the machine. Curator: Hmmm… Copley was also capturing a specific person in that specific moment, and I am quite touched with what seems the inherent melancholy. Even now, knowing that the portrait captures only surface...I feel I have met him. Editor: Interesting. For me, seeing the mechanics of how that illusion was crafted is what makes it… less personal. Instead I leave this encounter pondering about who produced this satin.