Tag Archives | Jonathan Rinck

Jonathan Rinck

Rinck, Jonathan. “Maria Spilsbury (1776-1820): Artist and Evangelical.” CAA Reviews (March 22, 2012): 1.

Abstract: In her short biographical work Father and Daughter: Jonathan and Maria Spilsbury (London: Epworth, 1952), Ruth Young, a descendant of Maria Spilsbury (Spilsbury-Taylor, after her marriage in 1808), recounts a delightful anecdote in which the future KingGeorge IV visited Spilsbury’s studio on St. George’s Row, London. Impatient with how slowly work was progressing on his commission which, to his judgment, seemed complete, he exclaimed, “Really, Mrs. Taylor, I swear that you can do no more to that! You’ve finished it and a damned good picture it is.” Unconvinced, Spilsbury sought a second opinion from her maid. Upon close inspection, the maid astutely pointed out that, distressingly, the woman sewing in the painting still lacked a thimble. At this, the exasperated prince, Young writes, chased the maid out of the room, “her cap-strings flying” (32). Any other artist might have obligingly yielded to the prince, but such was Spilsbury’s notoriety that visits from the Prince Regent, her chief patron, were merely commonplace.

Jonathan Rinck

Rinck, Jonathan. “Abolition’s Indelible Image.” Michigan History Magazine no. 6 (2009): 8.

Abstract: The larger-than-life graphic grabs your attention the minute you walk into the Civil War gallery of the Michigan Historical Museum. Depicting an African man in chains, its caption calls out: “Am I not a man and a brother?” Though conceived in England, the image played a significant role in galvanizing support for the abolitionist cause in America. There were two Michigan connections to it as well.