Fotoreproductie van een schilderij van Thomas Wentworth, graaf van Strafford, in de Tower of London door Paul Delaroche before 1858

This is a photographic reproduction by Robert Jefferson Bingham of a painting by Paul Delaroche, depicting Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, in the Tower of London. Let’s consider how power and privilege are visually constructed here. Wentworth, a prominent figure in the court of King Charles I, was eventually impeached and executed, a pivotal moment in the lead-up to the English Civil War. Delaroche’s painting, captured by Bingham’s lens, freezes Wentworth in a moment of aristocratic vulnerability. The scene is set in the Tower, a space synonymous with imprisonment and state power. We see Wentworth, attended by loyal servants, his children, awaiting his execution. It's a tableau of domesticity shadowed by impending doom, the sadness of familial bonds set against the machinery of state violence. Consider how this image was received in its time, Great Britain was building its empire, and how images such as this helped to both secure and question this notion of British identity. It reminds us of the complex interplay between personal tragedy and historical narrative.