Colonel George Lewis

1794

John Singleton Copley American, 1738-1815

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About the Artwork

In this striking portrait, Colonel George Lewis is silhouetted boldly against a smoky sky, the flames of battle glowing in the lower right background. Lewis had served in the British Royal Army during the successful defense of Gibraltar from its prolonged siege by French and Spanish forces from 1779 to 1783. In 1783, the City of London commissioned American-born artist John Singleton Copley to create a monumental painting of the battle in celebration that important victory. Copley spent eight years working on it, making careful portrait studies of the surviving participants before completing the twenty-five-foot-long painting in 1791 (Guildhall Museum, London). In that composition, Lewis leans against a cannon in a group of British soldiers in the lower right.

Lewis’s family commissioned this portrait from Copley, based on his earlier studies, three years after Lewis’s death in 1791. The artist charged a fee of thirty-one pounds and ten shillings and delivered the painting to the Lewis family in February 1794.

Title Colonel George Lewis

Artwork Date 1794

Artist John Singleton Copley

Life Dates 1738-1815

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 30 1/8 × 25 inches (76.5 × 63.5 cm) Framed: 37 9/16 × 32 9/16 × 2 3/4 inches (95.4 × 82.7 × 7 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Founders Society Purchase with funds from Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Manoogian

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 70.560.A

Markings

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Provenance

the family of Colonel Lewis.
November 19, 1969, sale, Sotheby's, lot 42 (London, England);
1969, Leger Galleries, Ltd. (London, England).
1970-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Prown, J.D. John Singleton Copley, 1774-1815, vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1966, pp. 489, 495-499.

Bulletin of the DIA 50: Annual Report (1971): p. 4 (ill.).

Hood, Graham, Kathleen Pyne, and Nancy Rivard. "American Paintings Acquired During the Last Decade." Bulletin of the DIA 55, no. 3 (1977): pp. 73-75 (ill.).

American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1991, pp. 70-72 (ill.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

John Singleton Copley, Colonel George Lewis, 1794, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase with funds from Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Manoogian, 70.560.A.