"On the Spot": travelling artists and Abolitionism, 1770-1830

Until recently the visual culture of Atlantic slavery has rarely been critically scrutinised. Yet in the first decades of the nineteenth century slavery was frequently represented by European travelling artists, often in the most graphic, sometimes voyeuristic, detail. This paper examines the work of several itinerant artists, in particular Augustus Earle (1793-1838) and Agostino Brunias (1730–1796), whose very mobility along the edges of empire was part of a much larger circulatory system of exchange (people, goods and ideas) and diplomacy that characterised Europe’s Age of Expansion. It focuses on the role of the travelling artist, and visual culture more generally, in the development of British abolitionism between 1770 and 1830. It discusses the broad circulation of slave imagery within European culture and argues for greater recognition of the role of such imagery in the abolitionist debates that divided Britain. Furthermore, it suggests that the epistemological authority conferred on the travelling artist—the quintessential eyewitness—was key to the rhetorical power of his (rarely her) images. Artists such as Earle viewed the New World as a boundless source of fresh material that could potentially propel them to fame and fortune. Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802-1858), on the other hand, was conscious of contributing to a global scientific mission, a Humboldtian imperative that by the 1820s propelled him and others to travel beyond the traditional itinerary of the Grand Tour. Some artists were implicated in the very fabric of slavery itself, particularly those in the British West Indies such as William Clark (working 1820s) and Richard Bridgens (1785-1846); others, particularly those in Brazil, expressed strong abolitionist sentiments. Fuelled by evangelical zeal to record all aspects of the New World, these artists recognised the importance of representing the harsh realities of slave life. Unlike those in the metropole who depicted slavery (most often in caustic satirical drawings), many travelling artists believed strongly in the evidential value of their images, a value attributed to their global mobility. The paper examines the varied and complex means by which visual culture played a significant and often overlooked role in the political struggles that beset the period

The Royal Academy of Arts; a complete dictionary of contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904,

I. Abbayne to Carrington.--II. Carroll to Dyer.--III. Eadie to Harraden.--IV. Harral to Lawreanson.--V. Lawrence to Nye.--VI. Oakes to Rymsdyk.--VII. Sacco to Tofano.--VIII. Toft to Zwecker.Mode of access: Internet

The Society of artists of Great Britain, 1760-1791; the Free society of artists, 1761-1783 ; a complete dictionary of contributors and their work from the foundation of the societies to 1791,

"An account of the Free society of artists, comp. from 'Anecdotes of painters' by Edward Edwards, A.R.A., 'Patronage of British art' by John Pye, and the catalogues themselves": p.[329]-341."An account of the Society of artists of Great Britain, comp. from 'Anecdotes of painters' by Edward Edwards, A.R.A., 'Patronage of British art' by John Pye, and other sources, including the notes in the catalogues themselves": p.[293]-328.Mode of access: Internet

A history of the works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. /

"Limited to 125 copies.""Concerning the parentage and kinsfolk of Sir Joshua Reynolds and certain other matters. By Sir Robert Edgcumbe": volume 4, pages 1679-1703."Pedigree of the Reynolds family": volume 4, pages 1675-1677."Writings relating to Sir Joshua Reynolds": volume 4, pages 1671-1673.Paged continuously.Mode of access: Internet

Treasures of art in Great Britain : being an account of the chief collections of paintings, drawings, sculptures, illuminated mss., &c. &c. /

Supplemented by: "Summary of an index to Waagen, by Algernon Graves" ([9], 366 p., plate. port. 25 cm.) published: London, Cornmarket, 1970. Facsim. of 1912 ed.Supplemented by: "Summary of an index to Waagen, by Algernon Graves ..." (4 p.l., 366 pl, 1 l. front. (port.) 9 cm.) published: London, A. Graves, 1912. "Limited to 125 copies (including presentation) no. 64." Index also of supplementary volume, published in 1857.A supplementary volume was published in 1857 under title: Galleries and cabinets of art in Great Britain.Translated from the German by Lady Eastlake.Mode of access: Internet

‘The small Domestic & conversation style’: David Allan and Scottish portraiture in the Late Eighteenth Century

This article focuses on two conversation pieces by the eighteenth-century Scottish artist David Allan: The Family of the 4th Duke of Atholl (1780) and Sir James Grant (1785). One of the most vital characteristics of the conversation piece was its delineation of customary detail: the ‘mode & manner of the time & habits’, to use George Vertue’s phrase. These paintings feature detailed description of Highland costume, Highland custom and Highland country – and, in so doing, provide invaluable insights into the rapidly evolving, increasingly romanticized image of the Highlands in the later eighteenth century. They offer distinct views into the changing connotations of tartan and Highland custom in the decades following the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, the place of these cultural nationalist signs within the ‘concentric loyalties’ of Scots in this period and the relationship between Highlandism and values associated with the Union