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Portrait of Paul Revere

John Singleton Copley · 1768

John Singleton Copley's 1768 portrait shows Paul Revere as a working silversmith, holding a teapot beside his tools.

This portrait depicts Revere himself as a silversmith, painted by his friend Copley before his fame as a revolutionary.

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Oil portrait of a man with short brown hair in a white linen shirt and dark green vest, resting his right hand against his chin. His left hand holds a polished silver teapot on a round wooden stand. Tools lie on the dark wooden table in front of him against a black background.
John Singleton Copley, Portrait of Paul Revere, 1768. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

About this source

What it is

This oil portrait was painted in 1768 by John Singleton Copley, a friend of Paul Revere's. It shows Revere in shirtsleeves at his workbench, holding a silver teapot, surrounded by his engraving tools. It is now held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Why it matters

Copley rarely painted manual workers, so this informal portrait of an artisan was unusual for its time. Revere is shown without the powdered hair or fine clothing expected in English-style portraits, instead caught mid-work on one of his most skillful creations, a teapot. The painting captures Revere before he became known as a revolutionary, showing instead his pride in his craft. It later became one of the most admired works of American colonial art.

Look closer

  • What does Revere's clothing and pose tell you about how he wanted to be seen?
  • Why might Copley have chosen to paint him working rather than posed formally?
  • What details in the painting are realistic, and which seem exaggerated or idealized?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Paul Revere on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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