Epes Sargent

John Singleton Copley

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the knees up, and older, clean-shaven, pale-skinned man rests one elbow on a broken column in this vertical portrait painting. He rests on his right elbow, on our left, so his body creates a diagonal from the lower right to the top center of the composition. He looks at us with clear blue eyes under low brows. His fleshy cheeks are lightly flushed. Wrinkles line his mouth, which is closed in a slight smile. He has jowls and a double chin, and his face is marked with few flesh-colored bumps near his mouth and under one eye. Thick, white hair is brushed back from his forehead, and shoulder-length curls frame his wide face. His is lit from our left so the far side of his face is largely in shadow except for that eye. A strip of bright white fabric encircles his neck above the collar of his long, steel-gray coat. Only the bottom half of the buttons down the front are fastened. White ruffles line his wrists. A glimpse of a golden yellow garment and dark trousers are visible where the coat splits near the bottom of the painting. His left hand, to our right, is thrust into that coat pocket. The other elbow rests on the light brown stone column base on a tall pedestal, and he touches his midsection with those fingers. The left half of the background is dark brown and the right half opens onto a green tree silhouetted against a hazy-pink and aquamarine-blue sky.