One book shows Frost & Reed Boston art supply store label inside cover, artist’s name faintly inscribed near label. One book shows Frost & Reed Boston art supply store label inside cover, artist’s name faintly inscribed near label. Photograph of Copeland later in age tucked in.
Photograph of Copeland later in age tucked in.
Charles G. Copeland was born to a sea captain in Thomaston, Maine and did his earliest work there, including murals in private houses. According to an essay in the 1889 book American Art and American Art Collections: his first occupation after leaving school was that of clerk in a country store. He came to Boston, however, when about nineteen years old, and procured employment in the office of a general designer and mechanical draughtsman, where he learned to turn his hand to almost anything in their line of work, and in due time took his master’s place. The training received here he considers of great use, –in fact he never had any other art education, with the exception of a season at the Lowell Institute school, and the solid benefit derived from being an active member of the Zepho Club, an association of earnest Boston art workers, who meet every week to draw from the model…. Mr. Copeland has assisted in the illustration and embellishment of a great quantity of books and magazines. Among the holiday volumes in which his work may be found are “Enoch Arden,” “The Daydream,” “Fairy Lilian,” “Lorna Doone,” and “The Sermon on the Mount.” In addition to working in black-and-white, he has paid much attention to watercolors, with very successful results, and three exhibitions of his achievements with this medium have taken place in Boston, of which the latest one shows a marked advance in color and freedom of handling. The subjects were mostly landscape. (Walter Montgomery, ed. American Art and American Art Collections, Vol 2 [? Boston: E. W. Walker], 1889, 820-22)
Copeland had at least two solo watercolor shows at the nationally recognized Williams & Everett Gallery in Boston (see below) and was a member and regular exhibitor at the Boston Art Club and the Boston Society of Watercolor Painters. He also exhibited watercolors for several years at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In the 1890’s he maintained a workspace in the popular studio building on Tremont Street that also housed William Rimmer and William Morris Hunt. By 1888, the artist and his wife Eda lived at 21 Pemberton Square in Boston, while having a house built in Newton. In Newton, he established himself as a full-time artist. His illustrations appeared in Youth’s Companion, a popular children’s magazine. Copeland also illustrated sheet music and many books, a number of them devoted to wildlife and outdoor living. The Copeland family spent summer seasons in Thomaston, in his wife’s childhood home: a large, Italianate house on 123 Main Street. While in Thomaston, Charles painted watercolors of local scenes.
Not only was Copeland a masterful draftsman and remarkable at capturing wildlife, but he also clearly had a very impish personality. One drawing lampoons himself.
Book 1 Begins 1884 – Total 51 drawing
1 refers to 1 page—pages often have multiple drawings of the same animal on each
A few pages have different animals on 1 page, so the page is counted more than once
Urban scenes indoors/out (Boston?): 7
People: 7 (most are children; 1 comic self-portrait)
Minstrels show blackface: 4
Inventions/machinery: 3
Townscape/harbors/panorama 6 (some double page) presumably Boston
Historic/costume: 8
Animals: 5 monkeys, 3 lynx/bobcat, 1 owl, 2 eagle, 1 sable, 1 fisher, 1 loon, 1 caribou, and 1 sled dog.
Book 2 1900-02 – Total 49 drawings
6 moose, 7 deer, 2 insects, 2 otters, 2 bears, 3 foxes, 3 rabbits, 2 mice, 1 sable, 2 squirrels, 2 ruffed grouses, 1 peacock, 1 kingfisher, 3 woodcocks, 2 ducks, 1 partridge, 2 hawks, 1 bison, 1 heron, 3 beavers , 1 mink, 1 fisher, and 1 hedgehog.
Measurement: 3 5/8" x 9”
Material: Pencil on paper
Item Condition: Good, a few pages are detached, some crumbling to some but not all edges of pages. Bindings have been reinforced with tape long ago.
Provenance: Allentown Paper Show, 2016. Dealer purchased in Maine from Copeland’s descendant.
Price: $3,100
SKU 1292-28
For More Information, Please Contact David Hillier at 978-597-8084 or email drh@aaawt.com.
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