: mination I shall be able easily in a few lines to you to point out any necessary alterations. I shoud be glad of your answer by return of the post, also the price of a copy, as I do not at present well recolect it, they are half pictures. I remain, Sir, Your most obedt. & h'ble Servt. GEORGE LIVIUS. SIR, George Livius to Copley PORTSMOUTH, N.E., 14th Seper., 1767. You shoud have heard from me in consequence of your letter had not the packett which was to have sail'd last week been delay'd 'till this time. I intend sending the Portraits by Captn. Fernald; he sails tomorrow. As to the price you wrote me it exceeds considerably what was customary with you when I was in Boston two years since, and at present is more than was expected by some Gentlemen here, especially for a copy; and I need not observe to you the very few opportunities you have of copying from so good a picture as one of them is. However all I shall add on this head is, that it shall be left entirely to your discretion. I have particularly to beg that nothing may be spared to have them as perfect pictures as you can make them for your own honor and the credit of New England, for as good pictures they may be observed in England and further convince many of your, merit. I am sorry you have been disappointed by three or four days of receiving them, however I make no doubt but that five weeks from the date of your letter (the 8th. Instt.) will answer your purpose as to time, you shall hear from me if I shoud be delay'd longer, but I at present rely on having them at that time finish'd in Boston. I remain, Sir, your most Obedt Servt GEORGE LIVIUS. P.S. They measure the Kitcat size. I find I can now spare you five weeks from this date, that is 'till monday the 19th of next month. The Alterations I woud chuse to have in one of the pictures are, Ist. the hand which holds the baskett of flowers. This I think is very badly foreshortned. The best way to remedy that in the copy may be by letting the mantle cover it, tho' I shoud prefer seeing the hand well foreshortned. The hair is also badly executed, as it is intended to exhibit hair that has been powder'd, careless in undress, but it looks more like grey hairs in its present dress, which woud be very inconsistant with the air of the picture, which has a youthfull appearance. The person's age was about 30 at the time of taking the picture, and a sure circumstance that they were not intended for grey is that at the time of her death the hair was light brown, which is the color I woud prefer having it drawn in. Another fault, thought so by those who remember the person, is the prodigious breadth of the picture across the shoulders (I dont mean the fall of the shoulders). This you will observe when you see the picture to be to a degree unnatural, tho I imagine it was intended to express the looseness of the bed gown; but it does not produce that effect. I woud chuse to alter the color of the bed gown from the flaring colour it is of to a more becoming and grave one, to a garnet purple for instance; but this I leave also to your fancy and taste. As to the other picture I woud chuse no alteration whatever in it; only an exact and good copy as possible. Care must be taken not to thrust the chisel too far in opening the case, there is a groove in the wood work in which part of the portrait is let in as it was a 1 of an inch too small; you will observe the case is not to be opened on the broad part, but on the side on which the card is nail'd, which is to be gently wedged up with a chisel for fear of hurt ing the pictures, which are to be carefully drawn out of the grooves they are put into. And in packing up the pictures again you will take care to have them put facing each other, that they may not rub or be hurt. I shall be obliged to you if you will in time bespeak as good a case to pack up your portraits in, to be sent me here. Copley to Francis M. Newton. BOSTON, Novг. 23, 1767. SIR, I received your very polite Letter of the 3d of Sepr., 1766, which gave me the first notice of my being Elected a Fellow of the Society of Artists of Great-Briton tho by some accident it did not come to hand till the 13th of Octr., 1767, otherwise I should sooner have acknowledged the seense I have of the compliment they have been pleased to Honour me with. I beg Sir You will take the first oppertunity of making my acknowledgements to the President and Society for this testamony of their approbation, and the favourable reception they have given my works, and as I shall allways esteem it a real Honour to be of that Society, so I shall by constant application to my studys strive to deserve the Election; But as I am sensable the Honour of the Society depends on the promotion of the Arts, I cannot but reflect with concern on my present situation, which utterly deprives me of every oppertunity (but what Nature has furnish'd me with) of being aiding in this laudable work. In a Country where their is neither precept, example, nor Models, to form the taste direct and confirm the practice I cannot take the sattisfaction or procure the advantages I might injoy in obeying Your sommons. But the tie of Filial Duty pleads my excuse for what might otherwise be thought to arrise from Inactivity I am, Sir, with all Due Respect, Your Most Obet. Humble Sert. JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY. Copley to [Captain R. G. Bruce?]1 [1767?] But What shall I do at the end of that time (for prudence bids us to Consider the future as well as the present). Why I must eighther return to America, and Bury all my improvements among people intirely destitute of all just Ideas of the Arts, and without any addition of Reputation to what I have already gaind. For the favourable receptions my Pictures have met with at home has mad them think I could get a better Living at home than I can here, which has been of service to me, but should I be disappointed, it would be quite the reverse. It would rather lessen than increase their oppinion of my Works which I aught by all prudent methods strive to avoide. Or I should sett down in London in a way perhaps less advantagious than what I am in at present, and I cannot think of purchasing fame at so dear a rate. I shall find myself much better off than I am in my present situation. (I would be here understood to speak of the profits of the art only, for as I have not any fortune, and an easy income is a nesasary thing to promote the art. It aught to be considered, and Painters cannot Live on Art only, tho I could hardly Live without it). But As it is not possable for me, Who never was in Europe, to settle sufficiently in my mind those points, I must rely on Your Friendship and Mr. 1 A fragment of the letter. West to inform me. I have wrote You and Mr. West in the plainest and most unreserved maner what the dificultys are, and doubt not Your friendship and prudence will lead You to give all Due weit to the objections I have proposed; and if You think they are still sufficient to keep me in this Country, I shall strive to content myself where I am. I have been thee more perticular in this Letter Least the other should have miscarried, and doubt not You will write me answer as soon as possible, and prevail on Mr. West to Lay asside the pencil to remove my Doubts, for You cannot but know a state of uncertainty in affairs of consequence (as these are to me,) are very perplexing and disagreable. Beside if Your Answer [be] such as to favour my going, you know I have a Real Estate which I must dispose of, and a Great Deal of Business to settle, which must take up much time and will detain me another Year, unless I can hear soon from You. Copley to [West or Captain R. G. Bruce?] [1767?] I observe the Critisisms made on my last picture were not the same as those made on the first. I hope I have not in this as in the last by striving to avoid one error fallen into another. I shall be sorry if I have. However it must take its fate. Perhaps You may blame me for not taking anoth[e]r subject that would have aforded me more time, but subjects are not so easily procured in this place. A taste of painting is too much Wanting to affoard any kind of helps; and was it not for preserving the resembla[n]ce of perticular persons, painting would not be known in the plac[e]. The people generally regard it no more than any other usefull trade, as they somtimes term it, like that |