The Signal Liberties of Copley’s The Death of Major Peirson

In 1781, print seller John Boydell commissioned John Singleton Copley to produce a painting commemorating the British victory against the French in the Battle of Jersey. In keeping with the conventions of academic history painting, Copley chose to depict the moment a pivotal officer expired on the battlefield. The Death of Major Pierson (1784) depicts the eponymous officer’s men retrieving his lifeless body from Royal Square in St. Helier. Like Copley’s earlier history paintings, Piersonexhibits a remarkable attention to detail, but also more than a few departures from reality, including, most notably, the black servant (Pompey) to Peirson’s right, who purportedly aims a musket at the major’s imperceptible assailant. This talk offers the first sustained interpretation of the black figure in Piersonand, thereby, reassesses the significance of history painting in the context of empire.