Professor Bruce Baker work-in-progress seminar: Henry Room (1802-1850), British portrait painter

Prof. Bruce E. Baker (Newcastle University)

“Henry Room (1802-1850), British portrait painter”

Work-in-progress Seminar, Durham University

HYBRID EVENT:

13 June 2023, 11.00-13.00 

In person at Cosin’s Hall (IAS, Palace Green, Durham; (Tea/coffee from 10:30am for those attending in person)

Online via Zoom:  https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/j/98403002301?pwd=Mm5rWndwSXhQN2ZSSzNvWkVGOWdBZz09  Meeting ID: 984 0300 2301, Passcode: 630255

Henry Room (1802-1850) is hardly unknown amongst the ranks of British portrait painters, but his importance may have been significantly underestimated.  Between about 1825 and 1850, he produced at least 150 portraits; of these the current whereabouts of 32 have been determined; yet published catalogues only attribute 21 works to him.  A lack of direct descendants, a habit of not signing his paintings, and, most importantly, the types of sitters he painted account for this undeserved obscurity.  Along with early portraits of artists and entertainers and a substantial commission for paintings of medical men, most of Room’s oeuvre consists of portraits of Dissenting ministers and missionaries connected to the London Missionary Society, most of which are known through engravings used as frontispieces for the Evangelical Magazine.

With very few portraits of politicians, the nobility, or industrialists, Room’s paintings have perhaps been collected less than those of his contemporaries whose work focused on more notable sitters.  Yet, the evangelical ministers he painted represent an important cadre of leaders of a middle class that was growing in social prominence in the second quarter of the nineteenth century.  At the same time, Room’s affiliation with the London Missionary Society means that he almost certainly painted more portraits of non-white sitters in Britain than any other artist in the first half of the century. 

This talk will present an introduction to Room and his work, an overview of what is known, and invite discussion of how best to further research on the artist and his paintings.