Zara Anishanslin presents "The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution" as the first lecture related to Firestone exhibit "Nursery of the Rebellion."
Told through the lives of three remarkable artists devoted to the pursuit of liberty, an illuminating new history of the ideals that fired the American Revolution.
The war that we now call the American Revolution was not only fought in the colonies with muskets and bayonets. On both sides of the Atlantic, artists armed with paint, canvas, and wax played an integral role in forging revolutionary ideals. Zara Anishanslin charts the intertwined lives of three such figures who dared to defy the British monarchy: Robert Edge Pine, Prince Demah, and Patience Wright. From London to Boston, from Jamaica to Paris, from Bath to Philadelphia, these largely forgotten patriots boldly risked their reputations and their lives to declare independence.
Mostly excluded from formal political or military power, these artists and their circles fired salvos against the king on the walls of the Royal Academy as well as on the battlefields of North America. They used their talents to inspire rebellion, define American patriotism, and fashion a new political culture, often alongside more familiar revolutionary figures such as Benjamin Franklin and Phillis Wheatley. Pine, an award-winning British artist rumored to be of African descent, infused massive history paintings with politics and eventually emigrated to the young United States. Demah, the first identifiable enslaved portrait painter in America, was Pine’s pupil in London before self-emancipating and enlisting to fight for the Patriot cause. And Wright, a Long Island–born wax sculptor who became a sensation in London, loudly advocated for revolution while acting as an informal patriot spy.
Illuminating a transatlantic and cosmopolitan world of revolutionary fervor, "The Painter’s Fire" reveals an extraordinary cohort whose experiences testify to both the promise and the limits of liberty in the founding era.
Books for sale by Labyrinth Books.
About the Author:
Zara Anishanslin is Associate Professor of History and Art History at the University of Delaware. She is the author of the award-winning Portrait of a Woman in Silk: Hidden Histories of the British Atlantic World and has served as a historical consultant for the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as “Hamilton: The Exhibition.”
About the Series: "Revolution Up Close: A Public Lecture Series"
This lecture series is presented in connection with "Nursery of Rebellion: Princeton and the American Revolution," an exhibit at the Princeton University Library, which runs from April 15 to July 12, 2026. Four recent authors offer new perspectives on the American Revolution by zooming in on an individual life, a close-knit community, or a single document.
Supported by a Special Grant from the Humanities Council’s Ruth and Sid Lapidus ’59 Research Fellowships Fund
Presented in partnership with Labyrinth Books, the Princeton University Department of History and the Princeton University Humanities Council. Public Humanities programs are presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Lectures & Panels | Humanities | Civic Life | Author Talks | *No Registration |
TAGS: | Revolution | NEH |
