Image, Identity and John Wesley

Peter S. Forsaith is a historian of religion, culture and society in eighteenth-century Britain. He is Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History, Oxford Brookes University, UK, and has written and lectured on many aspects of Methodist history. He gained his Ph.D. in 2003 for a scholarly edition of Rev. John Fletcher’s letters to Rev. Charles Wesley, later expanded and published as Unexampled Labours (2008). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Image, Identity and John Wesley represents the fruit of more than twenty years of scholarly research by the author, who is recognised as a foremost expert on Wesley iconography.

• Introduction; 1 ‘A far greater Genius than Sir Joshua’: some issues and complexities around the portraiture; 2 ‘This melancholy employment’: portraits from the life to 1780; 3 ‘I yielded to importunity’: portraits from the life 1781-1791; 4 Prints and posthumous portraits: spreading and selling the image; 5 Scene paintings; 6 Pottery and sculpture – a note; 7 No striking likeness? Images and ambiguities; 8 ‘The Pious Preacher’: satire; 9 ‘Of pictures I do not pretend to be a judge’: John Wesley and art; 10 Image, identity and institution: constructing a canon; 11 Conclusions: visualising Mr. Wesley; Plates; Appendix A – Iconography of principal paintings of John Wesley, with selected prints; Appendix B – References in John Wesley’s Journal and diaries to portraits and painters