About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherHarvard University Press

ISBN-100674290232

ISBN-139780674290235

eBay Product ID (ePID)15072891018

Product Key Features

Book TitlePainter's Fire : a Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution

Number of Pages352 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2025

TopicUnited States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800), United States / General, Europe / Great Britain / Georgian Era (1714-1837), African American

GenreHistory

AuthorZara Anishanslin

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.1 in

Item Weight20 oz

Item Length9.2 in

Item Width6.1 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2024-049291

ReviewsThe Painter's Fire takes the new appreciation of the American Revolution as a transatlantic civil war into the realm of art, both high and popular. Suddenly we see women and people of African descent in vivid color. This is cutting-edge scholarship as much as it is a gripping narrative about innovative artists. Insisting that painters and sculptors were 'central to the making of revolution,' Zara Anishanslin reclaims patriotism for a diverse group of cosmopolitans., If you thought the art history of the American Revolution meant old men in wigs silently sitting for their portraits, Zara Anishanslin's outsized assembly of contrarian, conspiratorial, and colorful-in-every-sense characters will blow your mind., Captivating...Anishanslin offers a compelling blend of historical insight and artistic analysis, making this a valuable read for those interested in revolutionary history and art.

SynopsisTold through the lives of three remarkable artists devoted to the pursuit of liberty, an illuminating new history of the ideals that fired the American Revolution. The war that we now call the American Revolution was not only fought in the colonies with muskets and bayonets. On both sides of the Atlantic, artists armed with paint, canvas, and wax played an integral role in forging revolutionary ideals. Zara Anishanslin charts the intertwined lives of three such figures who dared to defy the British monarchy: Robert Edge Pine, Prince Demah, and Patience Wright. From London to Boston, from Jamaica to Paris, from Bath to Philadelphia, these largely forgotten patriots boldly risked their reputations and their lives to declare independence. Mostly excluded from formal political or military power, these artists and their circles fired salvos against the king on the walls of the Royal Academy as well as on the battlefields of North America. They used their talents to inspire rebellion, define American patriotism, and fashion a new political culture, often alongside more familiar revolutionary figures such as Benjamin Franklin and Phillis Wheatley. Pine, an award-winning British artist rumored to be of African descent, infused massive history paintings with politics and eventually emigrated to the young United States. Demah, the first identifiable enslaved portrait painter in America, was Pine's pupil in London before self-emancipating and enlisting to fight for the Patriot cause. And Wright, a Long Island-born wax sculptor who became a sensation in London, loudly advocated for revolution while acting as an informal patriot spy. Illuminating a transatlantic and cosmopolitan world of revolutionary fervor, The Painter's Fire reveals an extraordinary cohort whose experiences testify to both the promise and the limits of liberty in the founding era., The Painter's Fire follows a remarkable cohort of transatlantic artists who risked their lives and reputations to promote the patriot cause during the Revolutionary War. Their experiences, Zara Anishanslin shows, testify to both the promise and the limits of liberty in the founding era.

LC Classification NumberE249.3.A55 2025