<< YCBA Home Yale Center for British Art Yale Center for British Art << YCBA Home

YCBA Collections Search

 
IIIF Actions
Creator:
Attributed to John Verelst, ca. 1675–1734
formerly attributed to unknown artist
Title:

Elihu Yale with Members of his Family and an Enslaved Child [2021, YBCA]

Former Title(s):

Elihu Yale; William Cavendish, the second Duke of Devonshire; Lord James Cavendish; Mr. Tunstal; and an Enslaved Servant

The 2d Duke of Devonshire, Lord James Cavendish, Elihu Yale, an unknown adult male, and a page

Elihu Yale, the second Duke of Devonshire, Lord James Cavendish, Mr. Tunstal, and a Page [1985, Cormack, YCBA Concise Catalogue]

The Duke of Devonshire, Elihu Yale and Lord James Cavendish

Date:
ca. 1719
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
79 1/4 × 92 3/4 inches (201.3 × 235.6 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Label on verso, center left: "Artist British School | Elihu Yale, the 2nd Duke of Devonshire, Lord | James Cavendish, Mr. Tunstal, and a Page. | Medium c. 1708 oil on canvas | Size 79 1/4 x 92 3/4 Accession no B1970.1 | Credit line Gift of the 11th Duke of Devonshire"; center left: "IR 30 | B1970.1"

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Andrew Cavendish, eleventh Duke of Devonshire
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1970.1
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B1970.1FR
Subject Terms:
beverages | candle | children | column (architectural element) | conversation piece | dancing | diamond | drinking | drinking glasses | enslaved child | group portrait | landscape | men | pipe stopper | pipes (smoking equipment) | portrait | ring | ruby | smoking (activity) | snuffbox | sword | tobacco box | violin | wigs | wine | wineskin
Associated People:
North, Dudley (1684–1730)
Cavendish, Elizabeth (1712–1779)
Cavendish, William (1711–1751)
North, Anne (1708–1789)
North, Mary (1715–1770)
North, Dudley (1707–1764)
Unknown enslaved child (born ca. 1712)
Cavendish, Lord James (aft. 1673–1751) of Staveley, Derbyshire and Latimer, Buckinghamshire
Yale, David (1699–1730) of new Haven, Connecticut
Yale, Elihu (1649–1721), merchant and administrator in India and benefactor
Access:
Not on view
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:107
Export:
XML
IIIF Manifest:
JSON

This painting depicts the university’s early benefactor and namesake, Elihu Yale (1649–1721). He is seated between his sons-in-law, whose marriages to his daughters Catherine and Anne Yale had been brokered with the vast wealth he had accrued as a merchant and colonial administrator in India. While Yale’s grandchildren play in the background, an enslaved child, whose name is now unknown, serves wine to the men. Over the course of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, many children of African and Indian descent, mostly boys, were separated from their families to serve as attendants in wealthy households in Britain. Often, these children were forced to wear metal collars, like the one seen here, to identify and recapture those who ran away.

Although never part of Paul Mellon’s collection of British art, this group portrait was the first painting to be formally accessioned by the museum.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2021


At the center of this portrait group sits the merchant Elihu Yale (after whom the university is named), joined at the table by William Cavendish, second Duke of Devonshire (right), his younger brother James Cavendish (left), and a standing man, who is identified on the back of the canvas as a lawyer named Mr. Tunstal. The portrait is believed to commemorate the signing of a marriage contract between Yale’s daughter, Anne, and James Cavendish. Behind this union between a nobleman and a merchant’s daughter lay Yale’s immense fortune, amassed during his time in India working for the East India Company. Nothing is known about the young boy pouring wine except that his livery identifies him as a servant, and the padlocked collar indicates that he is enslaved.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016


This imposing group portrait shows Elihu Yale (center), William Cavendish, second Duke of Devonshire (right), and his younger brother James Cavendish (left) seated at a table laden with glasses of Madeira (a sweet, fortified wine), tobacco, and clay pipes. Near them is a man, who is identified on the back of the canvas as a lawyer named Mr. Tunstal, and an enslaved servant standing to the right of the Duke. (The children and dancing master in the background were added later.) This painting is an early example of a type of portrait painting known as the "conversation piece," which will be explored further in the next room.

Yale’s prominent position in the composition suggests that he commissioned the painting, though the garden setting seems to be the Duke’s estate, Chatsworth. The portrait is believed to commemorate the signing of a marriage contract between Yale’s daughter Anne and James Cavendish—a union which was brokered by Yale’s immense fortune, symbolized here by his diamond ring. Nothing is known about the boy wearing a livery (or uniform), who serves Madeira at the table. However, the silver collar and padlock around his neck clearly signifies his status as enslaved. Also, his proximity to the Duke suggests that he is a member of the Devonshire household rather than Yale’s. There is no direct evidence that Yale owned slaves; however, he was certainly involved in the slave trade while in Madras. Another portrait of him with an enslaved black servant is in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery.

The small-scale copy of this painting displayed at the exhibition entrance may have been commissioned by Yale as a keepsake. Some changes between the two versions are evident. In the copy, the garden landscape is elaborated by arcades, urns, and a hedged walk. Strikingly, the padlock hanging from the collar worn by the young enslaved servant is transformed into a large pearl, a change that more forcefully emphasizes his perceived status as a luxury possession.

Gallery label for Figures of Empire: Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-10-02 - 2014-12-14)
Nothing is known about the boy on the right, who has just finished pouring Madeira (a sweet, fortified wine) into the glasses on the table. His fine red and grey livery (or uniform) identifies him as a servant, and the silver collar and padlock around his neck indicate that he is enslaved.
At the table sit Elihu Yale (center), William Cavendish, second Duke of Devonshire (right), and his younger brother James Cavendish (left). Near them is a man, who is identified on the back of the canvas as a lawyer named Mr. Tunstal. The portrait, which seems to be set on the Duke’s estate, Chatsworth, is believed to commemorate the signing of a marriage contract between Yale’s daughter, Anne, and James Cavendish. (The children and dancing master in the background may have been added later to represent their family.) This union between a nobleman and a merchant’s daughter was brokered by the immense fortune that Yale amassed during his time in India with the East India Company—a fortune symbolized here by his diamond ring. Yale’s prominent position in the composition suggests that he commissioned the painting.
While archival sources reveal a great deal about Yale, the second Duke, and his brother, they tell us little about the young boy who serves them. We can fairly assume that he came to England on a slave ship. His proximity to the Duke suggests that he is a member of the Devonshire household. This cannot be confirmed, however, because servants’ registers from this period do not survive in the Chatsworth archive and records of Devonshire livery do not describe its appearance. Alternatively, it is possible that the boy is present here as Yale’s servant. There is no direct evidence that Yale personally owned slaves, though another portrait, now in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery, shows him with an enslaved servant. Yale served as governor of the East India Company’s settlement at Fort St. George, Madras (now Chennai) twice; firstly in an acting capacity in 1684-85 and then between 1687 and 1692 as full governor [The dates of Yale’s governorship in this sentence were amended in October 2020 in light of information provided by Adam Chen TD '22]. During that time, he oversaw the company’s slave trading activities, records of which survive in archives in Chennai.
In the absence of documentary evidence about him, we need to find other ways to imagine this boy’s history—a history which, much like Elihu Yale’s own, was shaped by Britain’s imperial expansion and the transatlantic slave trade. Although he has not traditionally been understood as one of the painting’s sitters, this exhibition asks us to consider him as such.

Esther Chadwick, Meredith Gamer, and Cyra Levenson

Figures of Empire: Slavery and Portraiture in eighteenth-century Atlantic Britain, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2014, p. 11, V 2556 (YCBA)

Figures of Empire: Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-10-02 - 2014-12-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

The Conversation Piece - Arthur Devis & His Contemporaries (Yale Center for British Art, 1980-10-01 - 1980-11-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Susan Dwyer Amussen, Caribbean exchanges : slavery and the transformation of English society, 1640-1700, The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC, pp. 211-212, HT1165 .A68 2007 (YCBA) [YCBA]

An Elihu Yale conversation piece, The Yale University library gazette, vol. 35, no. 4 (April 1961), Yale University Library, New Haven, CT, pp. 158-161, Z733 Y18 A4 (BEINECKE) [ORBIS]

F. E. G. Bagshawe, Index to "The Bagshawes of Ford", no. 216a, Not at Yale (available at University of Nottingham) [OCLC]

David Bindman, The Image of the Black in Western Art : From the " Age of Discovery" to the Age of Abolition, , vol. 3, part 3, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2010, pp. 139-41, fig. 130, N8217.B535 I42 2010+ (YCBA) Citations are to Vol. 3, Part 3 [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 32-33, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ellen G. D'Oench, The Conversation Piece: Arthur Devis & his contemporaries, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1980, pp. 4, 67, no. 45, fig. 1, NJ18 D5151 D64 OVERSIZE [ORBIS]

Elihu Yale : the great Welsh American, Wrexham Area Civic Society, Wrexham, Clwyd, UK, p. 15, CS71 Y18 1991 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Elihu Yale, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin, Bulletin 2012, Yale University Art Gallery, 2012, pp. 38, 39, 59, fig. 4, ND1314.3 .E55 2012 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Figures of Empire : Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2014, pp. 10-11, 41, V 2556 (YCBA) Also available online: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://britishart.yale.edu/sites/default/files/inline/Figures%20of%20Empire_booklet_FINAL.pdf [YCBA]

Jonathan Holloway, Commentary on a Group Portrait featuring Elihu Yale by an unknown artist, , Yale Center for British Art, Accessed 11/30/2015, 21:00 minutes, http://interactive.britishart.yale.edu/slavery-and-portraiture/331/commentary-by-jonathan-holloway [Website]

Jonathan Holloway, Commentary on Portrait of a Family by William Hogarth, [ Website ] , Yale Center for British Art, Accessed 11/30/2015, scattered comments and references, Available Online http://interactive.britishart.yale.edu/slavery-and-portraiture/338/commentary-by-jonathan-holloway [Website]

H. C. G. Matthew, Oxford dictionary of national biography, in association with the British Academy : from the earliest times to the year 2000 , vol. 59, Oxford University Press, Oxford ; New York, 2004, v. 60, pp. 722-723, DA28 .D5 2004 [ORBIS]

Christopher Maxwell, In sparkling company : reflections on glass in the 18th-century British world, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning : NY, p. 78, fig. 54, NK5143 .M46 2020+ (YCBA) [YCBA]

Marcia R. Pointon, Portrayal and the search for identity, Reaktion Books, London, 2013, pp. 48-50. 53-55,69-70, illus. 7, N7575 .P6452 2013 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Romita Ray, Commentary on a Group Portrait featuring Elihu Yale by an unknown artist, [ Website ] , Yale Center for British Art, Accessed 11/30/2015, 32:42 minutes, http://interactive.britishart.yale.edu/slavery-and-portraiture/332/commentary-by-romita-ray [Website]

Daniel Roza, Commentary on a Group Portrait featuring Elihu Yale by an unknown artist, , Yale Center for British Art, Accessed 11/30/2015, 4:26 minutes, http://interactive.britishart.yale.edu/slavery-and-portraiture/330/commentary-by-daniel-roza [Website]

Diana Scarisbrick, Elihu Yale : merchant, collector & patron, Thames & Hudson, 2014, pp. 54, 55, fig. 18, DA497.Y3 S37 2014 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Slavery and Portraiture in 18th-century Atlantic Britain, [Website] , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2015, Available online https://interactive.britishart.yale.edu/slavery-and-portraiture/ [Website]

Roy C. Strong, Artist & the Garden, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2000, p. 59, no. 67, ND1460 G37 S77 2000 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Beth Fowkes Tobin, Picturing Imperial Power : Colonial Subjects in Eighteenth Century British Painting, Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, 1999, p. 29, no. 2, ND466 759 1999 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Edward Town, A reckoning with our past : Yale examines it historical ties with slavery, Yale Alumni Magazine, vol. 85, no.3 (January/February 2022), Yale Alumni Publications, New Haven, CT, pp.34-35, 40-41, Yh10 +A2 (LSF) [ORBIS]

Edward Town, Marking time : objects, people, and their lives, 1500-1800, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, p. 49, fig. 4, BF468 .M35 2020 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Edward Town, New light on the group portrait of Elihu Yale, his family, and an enslaved child [Website], Accessed June 6, 2021, Available Online https://britishart.yale.edu/new-light-group-portrait-elihu-yale-his-family-and-enslaved-child [Website]

Merlin Waterson, Although a rascal, Eli Yale used his means effectively, Smithsonian, vol. 8 (October 1977), Smithsonian Associates, Washington, DC, pp. 91, 96, A53 Sm68+ (LSF) [ORBIS]


If you have information about this object that may be of assistance please contact us.