George Alexander Gratton

1 portrait by Daniel Orme

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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George Alexander Gratton

by P.R. Cooper, sold by and after Daniel Orme
hand-coloured stipple, published 11 November 1809
11 3/4 in. x 8 7/8 in. (298 mm x 225 mm) plate size; 12 3/8 in. x 9 1/2 in. (314 mm x 241 mm) paper size
Purchased with help from the Friends of the National Libraries and the Pilgrim Trust, 1966
Reference Collection
NPG D8254

Sitterback to top

Artistsback to top

  • P.R. Cooper (died before 1809), Engraver. Artist or producer associated with 1 portrait.
  • Daniel Orme (1766-1837), Painter and engraver. Artist or producer associated with 15 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This is a historical work of art which reflects the attitudes and viewpoints of the time in which it was made. Whilst these may differ from today's attitudes, this image is an important historical document.

George Alexander Gratton was a slave named after the overseer of the plantation in which he was born on the Caribbean island St Vincent in 1808. From birth, he showed signs of the then little-known skin condition vitiligo, which rendered him an object of curiosity and victim to superstitious beliefs that he might be either lucky or unlucky. As a baby he was purchased for 1000 guineas (a sizeable sum for the period) by the travelling showman John Richardson and took him back to England and exhibited him to customers willing to pay to view the child. This would be considered exploitation and cruelty today but at the time 'freak shows' were extremely popular and provided sensationalised entertainment for the masses.

This engraving was made after a now-lost painting by the artist Daniel Orme when George was eighteen months old, and reveals the era's attitudes towards both Afro-Caribbean peoples and those with unusual medical conditions. George's nakedness and juxtaposition with a mottled dog suggest that he was viewed more as an animal specimen than a human. The turtle on which he sits also references his 'exotic' origins in the West Indies.

The objectification of a young child, which is so troubling to modern eyes, was partially a way for nineteenth-century viewers to understand physical difference. However, the highly problematic nature of his exhibition was compounded by the racist attitudes of the trans-Atlantic slavery era towards black Africans, which considered them to be both physically and morally inferior to white Europeans.

Placesback to top

Events of 1809back to top

Current affairs

Duke of Portland resigns as Prime Minister to be succeeded by Spencer Perceval.
Motion for parliamentary reform is defeated in the House of Commons.
Notorious duel between George Canning and Viscount Castlereagh over strategic failures against Napoleon.

Art and science

Maria Edgeworth publishes Tales of Fashionable Life, a popular and perceptive series of stories exploring Anglo-Irish society after the Union.
Robert Smirke completes the New Covent Garden Theatre after fire. 'Old Price' theatre riots quickly break out against rising cost of admission.
Pall Mall in London is lit by gas for the first time.

International

British army lands in Lisbon and defeats the French at Talavera. Arthur Wellesley is created Viscount Wellington as a result of this victory.
Walcheren expedition led by General Chatham, which aimed to take Antwerp, fails amidst allegations of military corruption and carnage.
James Madison is elected President of the United States.

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CATERINA DI MAURO

22 October 2017, 16:48

Cited by the Italo-British writer Simonetta Agnello Hornby in" Nessuno può volare" (2017) as a freak example of disability, not often present in the classical portrait repertoire, underlining how is emphasized the physical abnormality as a particularity of nature.