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The pictures thus produced were without beauty of tone or richness of color. Something
must be allowed for the fading of the flesh tones, probably put in with carmine, but the effect must always
have been crude and harsh. The high lights are chalky white, the shadows black or brickish brown; a cold raw
blue (like Prussian blue) is often painfully prominent, and there is no attempt to soften the opposing tints
nor to blend them. The paint is laid on heavily and worked smooth until there are no brush marks visible.
There is no attempt to keep the shadows transparent nor much glazing or working over. It follows the style of
his predecessors, founded on German or French models, and shows no trace of the richer, ampler work already
beginning in England, where the traditions of Van Dyck were being revived. Nevertheless, in spite of these
faults, or possibly on account of them, his portraits have remarkable qualities. The figures are well placed
on the canvas, in good if rather rigid poses, the backgrounds, especially in the full-length portraits, are
sufficiently furnished with curtains, tables, and Turkey rugs, but over and above all else is the thorough,
unwearied sincerity of the work. Copley knew his sitters, knew their position in the community, their
dignity, their character, their wealth. He was in sympathy with them and judged by their own standard those
airs and graces which to a European might seem provincial and uncouth. Holmes has well called his portraits
the titles of nobility of the Bostonians of his clay. He painted them as they were, — serious, self-reliant,
capable, sometimes rather pompous in their heavy velvet coats, but men to be depended on in an
emergency.
The women were fit mates for the men, their faces stamped with that character which left
its impress on every child of the ample families of the time. The least successful are the younger women,
and at times there is a difficulty in reconciling his portraits with the reputation of the sitters for grace
and beauty handed down in the old diaries and letters ; but in time his sincerity triumphed even here, and
while the portrait remains crude, hard, and without charm, yet we recognize that it is the portrait of a
charming woman. This lack of charm tells terribly against them when hung in a gallery with other pictures;
but when seen in the places for which they were destined, the halls or rooms of old colonial houses of Boston
or
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