Jane Kamensky’s book is more like one of these narrative paintings, a broad canvas in full color ... in the hands of this Harvard historian, background images are as vivid and detailed as the man in the foreground, and the picture she paints is not a static portrait but a drama in motion ... Ms. Kamensky is particularly adept at describing and contextualizing color.
...as Kamensky makes clear in her intelligent and substantive analyses of his paintings and drawings, Copley’s art captured the zeitgeist of both his native land and the nation in which he lived the second half of his life ... Kamensky captures [this world] in all its political and moral messiness.
...sinewy, eagle-eyed, and, at times, rankling ... Kamensky wields a keen putty knife in a restoration that strives – rather than for objectivity – for acuity and honesty. Kamensky has that in spades, even when you disagree with her, even when some of her conclusions poke you in the eye ... Kamensky is also heroic in making this dreary time in Copley’s life a fascination in the minutiae of the milieu he moves through, but also in the background and evolution of his painting.
