Hugh Hall 1758
John Singleton Copley (1738-1815)
Pastel onoff-white laid paper, mounted on canvas; 15 15/16 x 13 3/16 in. (40.5 x 33.5 cm)

Description:
The subject of this powerful study is Hugh Hall, a distiller, son of the governor of Barbados, and a Boston merchant of great affluence. The portrait reveals the young Copley`s earliest attempt to master the difficult medium of pastel crayons. This is not an effortless performance. The picture bears the scars of his struggle to bend an obdurate medium to his will, but what the picture lacks in elegance it more than makes up in forcefulness. This portrait of Hugh Hall is probably Copley`s first pastel.