Mass Historical Society: "Copley’s Cato or, The Art of Slavery in the Age of British Liberty" | Jane Kamensky

Date: 

Tuesday, October 6, 2015, 5:15pm to 7:30pm

Location: 

Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215-3695

Jane Kamensky, Harvard History

These pages from several chapters of Kamensky’s manuscript, Copley: A Life in Color, pull at a knotty thread in Copley’s biography as it did through his world: the tangle of slavery and liberty. We follow the artist as he became, like many in his place and time, an owner of men and women. Shortly thereafter, the painter pioneered images that revolutionized the portrayal of people of African descent in Western art. Our discussion will explore the seeming contradiction between the roles bondspeople played in Copley’s American household and upon his epic British canvases.
Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required.

Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers. Jane Kamensky, Harvard University Comment: David L. Waldstreicher, Graduate Center, CUNY