Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Two Studies of a Man Astride a Cannon

John Singleton Copley
1738-1815

Two Studies of a Man Astride a Cannon

12 1/4 x 9 inches (310 x 228 mm)
Black and white chalk on blue paper.
1970.13

Gift of Mrs. Jacob M. Kaplan.

Notes
Watermark: none.
Preparatory drawing for Copley's painting, "The Siege of Gibraltar," at the Guildhall Art Gallery, London. The painting was executed in 1785 to commemorate the then recent siege. Copley completed a number of drawings, portrait studies and oil sketches relating to this painting. The composition of the drawing in the Morgan collection occurs in an oil sketch at the Thomas Coram Foundation in London, but not in the final version of the painting.
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed in black chalk at upper left, "Study for figure in picture / of Siege of Gibraltar. J. S. Copley R. A."
Associated names
Jupp, Edward Basil, 1812-1877, former owner.
Waller, Thomas William, former owner.
Moore, Elizabeth Stauffer, former owner.
Richardson, John William Moore, former owner.
Simmons, Elizabeth Richardson, former owner.
Kaplan, Alice M., 1903-1995, former owner.
Bibliography
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Sixteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969-1971. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1973, p. 111.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department