American Portraiture

On a final note, while reading this report I came across a familiar name from my studies with Professor Clark in American Art at Amherst last semester - Sir Isaac Royall. We spent an entire week on the first group portrait painted in North America, the portrait of Isaac Royall, Jr., and his family (below).

Robert Feke, the American Colonial portrait painter owes his reputation to this portrait. I recall the odd details of its creation - the face of the child in the center of then picture was added by an unknown artists after the death of the child painted by Feke. What we did not discuss was the fact that Isaac Royall, Sr., amassed his great fortune from a sugar cane plantation he owned on the island of Antigua. He profited in the great triangle trade of sugar, rum, and slaves.

Some further research revealed that Royall's house in Medford, Massachusettes was once considered "the grandest house in America" and included sweeping slave quarters. Isaac Royall, Jr., was a prominent real estate investor and maintained an assortment of public offices and military positions. He professed to be a Patriot, however, his business interests were undoubtedly tied to Loyalist families and the English crown. On the eve of the American Revolution, he fled Medford for England, where he remained for the rest of his life.

What is most relevant in relation to the Brown report, is that in 1779, the Royall family gave land by will to Harvard University, which was subsequently sold after the War to endow the Isaac Royall professorship. The establishment of this professorship inspired the founding of the Harvard Law School. The school's insignia includes the three sheaves of wheat from the Royall family coat of arms. Having read the Brown report, I cannot help but ask: should Harvard Law School hang the portrait of a slaveowner in a prominent place (like Brown's clock)? Should Harvard even keep such a portrait? And, the professorship?