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Description: | This painting shows the publican-poet, John Freeth, (seated, second from left), with members of the radical Birmingham Jacobin Club, who met at Freeth's tavern, the Leicester Arms, in Bell Street, from 1768 to 1808. The group, members of the rising middle class in the late eighteenth century, were local merchants and manufacturers who were involved with various projects for the improvement of Birmingham, ranging from educational initiatives to canal building. The man wearing the tall hat, on the right, is James Bisset, who published the Magnificent Dictionary of Birmingham, which listed the principal manufacturers and social leaders of the town. He also established one of Birmingham's first museums, which was visited by Nelson in 1802. To the right of Freeth, holding a clay pipe, is the only known portrait of Jeremia Vaux, one of the first surgeons at Birmingham's General Hospital. The picture was paid for on the tontine principle, the last survivor of the twelve, who proved to be James Bisset, becoming its possessor. A contemporary inscription on the back of the canvas states that, 'This picture is the common property of the twelve following gentlemen represented on the reverse, to be disposed of at all times as a majority of them will think proper, and to be the sole property of the survivor.' Then follows a list of names and 'This picture painted by John Eckstein, 1792'. | Subjects: | Jeremia; Jacobin Club) portrait (Freeth John; Vaux John; Bisset | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Eckstein, John (German painter, active 1787-1838) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=9176... | Go to resource |
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