Young Boston artist John Singleton Copley revealed his talent for capturing lifelike likenesses in this miniature, painted in oil on copper, a form of portrait that he employed only at this early stage of his career. Oliver, a successful Boston merchant, was the city's delegate to the House of Representatives for three terms and also served on the Massachusetts Council, the governor's advisory body. He became secretary of the province at about the time that this portrait was painted. An ally of the British Crown, he was appointed distributor of tax stamps after the Stamp Act of 1765. For this, a mob hung an effigy of him on Boston's Liberty Tree. Named lieutenant governor of the colony in 1771, Oliver died before the American Revolution began.

John Singleton Copley (1738-1815)
Oil on copper, circa 1758
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
NPG.78.218

Enlarged image

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