William Wilberforce 1828

Thomas Lawrence painted this portrait of William Wilberforce with oils on canvas. Looking closely, you'll notice that the artist has left much of the canvas bare, especially at the bottom and to the right. This gives us a clue into the labor involved in its creation. Wilberforce was a politician and philanthropist, best known for leading the movement to abolish the slave trade. Consider the significance of the labor of enslaved people at the time this portrait was made. The artist uses a traditional medium to capture his sitter, but the unfinished quality of the piece draws attention to both the labor of the artist and the labor of the sitter as an abolitionist, while making a subtle yet powerful comment about the economic system of the day, which allowed the upper classes to flourish at the expense of enslaved peoples. This piece asks us to consider whose labor is visible, and whose is not.