Gardner’s Hogarth: race, emblem, and morality in ‘What do I Want, John Henry?’ (1862)

Description

A recent discovery that the Scottish-American photographer, Alexander Gardner, was an admirer of the work of the painter William Hogarth allows for a new and more comprehensive analysis of one of his most difficult images, ‘What do I want, John Henry?’, plate 27 of his 1866 Sketch Book of the American Civil War. [see figure]

‘What do I Want, John Henry?’ is a staged group portrait in which a young African American in Union uniform serves liquor to a white quartermaster captain and his entourage. Throughout the Sketch Book Gardner’s emblem format – with imago, subscriptio, and motto – performs a journalistic or editorial function, as an early photobook, but here offers an allegorical meaning that hints at the deep-seated racist stereotypes of African Americans that underpinned Northern society, even for abolitionists such as Gardner. (Foner 2001; Williams 2003; Tractenberg 2008)

Archival newspaper research reveals a revival of interest in Hogarth and eighteenth century culture 1860s Washington D.C., where Gardner worked, and a news report of a gift to Gardner of a quarto edition of the painter’s works points to a direct influence. Staged group portraits can now be read as conversation pieces, whilst ‘What do I Want, John Henry?’ can in turn be analysed through Hogarth’s treatment of persons of colour in his moral works. Does it merely conform to the representation of continued ‘submission and subservience’ as observed in Black experience of Northern employment in the Civil War? (Emberton 2012: 383) Alternatively, does Gardner instead acknowledge and deploy the black body, as invisible observer, viewer avatar, and bearer of social critique, famously argued of Hogarth by Dabydeen in 1987?

This activity is supported through a £635 grant from the University Conference Attendance Fund.

Period	11 Apr 2025
Event title	Association for Art History
Event type	Conference
Location	York, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International