The constellation Pictor whose configuration is recognized as an easel must have been in perfect pitch in 1738, the year both Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley—America’s first superstar painters—were born. Nature endowed both with artistic skills that required no instruction—both were totally self-taught, self-made, making their own miracle.

            West was a professional painter at age 12, famous by 18 in both his home state Pennsylvania and in New York. Copley was a late bloomer, not becoming a professional portraitist until age 14 when he instantly became a Boston celebrity.