John Wesley Portrait

Every Picture Tells a Story. By Rev. Denise Williamson.

In 2018 an old picture of John Wesley was discovered in the store room at Saint James’ Green Methodist Church. Although the glass was  not broken and the frame and print-image of John Wesley were intact, the whole needed some attention. On the nose, hair, preaching bands and shirt cuff of Wesley it looked as if a tiny insect had nibbled away at the white printing colour. Perhaps the pigment used was particularly delicious to the insect as it had left the black pigment areas alone!

When removing the printed image from its frame for restoration a logo was revealed on the picture which read ‘Middleton and Strobridge’. Also some text along the very bottom edge of the print suggested that the print had been made in Indiana in the United States in 1861.

Research on the name ‘Middleton and Strobridge’ on the internet led to making contact with an expert on early prints from The Philadelphia Print Shop in the U.S.A. Who replied;

“Thank you for your interesting query.  As it happens, I know quite a bit about your print as I have done a lot of research on Middleton and his chromolithographed portraits…….. As noted, this is a very rare print; yours is only the second copy I know of.”

The expert, Christopher Lane who has appeared as an expert on the American version of the Antiques Roadshow,  sent part of an article he had written about the company ‘Middleton and Strobridge’ and the John Wesley portrait. In the article Lane describes how the first chromo-lithograph print was made of John Wesley in March 1861 and received great acclaim. It was described by critics of that time as ‘A splendid work of Art…….it is almost impossible to distinguish it from the original……executed in oil colours exactly after the original’ 

The author and expert noted that he was able to locate only one example of this print which was found in John Wesley’s rooms in the New Room in Bristol. 

The article also said that the original painting from which the print had been taken had been owned by British Bishop Thomas Coke. Note that Thomas Coke had been ‘unofficially’ re-ordained by Wesley so that Coke could exercise the power to ‘ordain’ Methodist Ministers or preachers in America. This was one of the causes of the eventual split between the Anglican Church and the Methodist movement. 

In 1810 Coke had sent the original portrait to  a book agent in New York and then it had been passed to a relative in Brookville Indiana, where permission was given to raise funds for the local Methodist College, by making  prints costing $5 - $6 in 1861 The original painting was lost in a fire in 1868 which makes the prints by Middleton and Strobridge extremely rare.

Following a reference in the article the art Curator to the New Room in Bristol was contacted who provided the name of an expert on portraits of Wesley at Oxford Brookes University. He is Peter Forsaith who looks after and curates the Methodist Modern Art Collection and who came to North Yorkshire possibly 10 -15 years ago to give a talk about the collection. He too was very interested to hear about our print as he was then making notes for an article that he is planning to write about various print portraits of Wesley. He sent a copy of some notes he had made and also links to two other places where copies of our print had been found. These were Bishop Street Methodist Church in Leicester and The World Methodist Museum at Lake Junaluska  in North Carolina, USA. 

Of course many other places may have a print copy of the same John Wesley portrait.

The date of the print of about 1861 - 1868 would coincide with the 100 year Anniversary of the church at St James Green in 1866. Perhaps the portrait print was purchased to remember the link with Wesley and his many visits to Thirsk.