John Singleton Copley is a richly illustrated, two-volume study of the major colonial American artist who subsequently became a leading English painter.

Volume I deals with Copley's life and career in America. Containing 334 illustrations and a checklist, it combines all the available biographical data with an authoritative analysis of the artist's stylistic development, from his earliest ventures in 1753 to the achievements of his later American years. This volume also presents a detailed statistical study of Copley's American sitters that provides unusual insights into the artist-client relationship.

Volume II presents the first comprehensive investigation of Copley's career after he left America in 1774. In it, his study trip to Italy and the ensuing, highly productive years in England are thoroughly explored. This volume contains 334 illustrations, including a number of pictures never before published, and provides the only complete catalogue of Copley's post-American work.

This is the first publication in a new series, The Ailsa Mellon Bruce Studies in American Art, to be published by Harvard University Press for the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.