Favorite Paintings: John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere

When I lived in the Boston area -- Quincy and Milton, to be precise -- one of my favorite places to visit was the roomful of John Singleton Copley canvases at the Museum of Fine Arts. I am no sort of expert on these things, but something about Copley's "way" as a portraitist really speaks to me, as in this famous view of silversmith and patriot Paul Revere:



I love the steadiness of Revere's gaze, the fact that as a craftsman he's in his shirt-sleeves (most unusual for a portrait), the tools on the table, the gleam off that silver teapot.