‘The perfection of his taste’: Ralph Bernal, collecting and slave-ownership in nineteenth-century Britain
‘The perfection of his taste’: Ralph Bernal, collecting and slave-ownership in nineteenth-century Britain
Ralph Bernal was one of the most eminent collectors of his age, distinguished ‘by the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge’. He also owned three Jamaican plantations and enslaved over 500 people. This article will interrogate the complex ways that enslavement, race, culture and taste were intertwined in nineteenth-century Britain. It will argue that we should not uncritically celebrate ‘the connoisseur’ without interrogating the power relations that shaped how their collections, and reputations, were constructed. We cannot understand Bernal’s collection, or the ‘perfection’ of his taste, without acknowledging the violence embedded within it.
Slavery, collecting, decorative arts, slave-ownership, taste
19-37
Young, Hannah
7962d0f1-ffbc-4973-b65d-64bd9dde3477
22 February 2022
Young, Hannah
7962d0f1-ffbc-4973-b65d-64bd9dde3477
Young, Hannah
(2022)
‘The perfection of his taste’: Ralph Bernal, collecting and slave-ownership in nineteenth-century Britain.
Cultural and Social History, 19 (1), .
(doi:10.1080/14780038.2022.2034587).
Abstract
Ralph Bernal was one of the most eminent collectors of his age, distinguished ‘by the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge’. He also owned three Jamaican plantations and enslaved over 500 people. This article will interrogate the complex ways that enslavement, race, culture and taste were intertwined in nineteenth-century Britain. It will argue that we should not uncritically celebrate ‘the connoisseur’ without interrogating the power relations that shaped how their collections, and reputations, were constructed. We cannot understand Bernal’s collection, or the ‘perfection’ of his taste, without acknowledging the violence embedded within it.
Text
14780038.2022
- Version of Record
Text
Acceptance Email - Hannah Young - Outlook
Restricted to Repository staff only
Request a copy
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 24 January 2022
Published date: 22 February 2022
Additional Information:
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords:
Slavery, collecting, decorative arts, slave-ownership, taste
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 456467
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/456467
ISSN: 1478-0038
PURE UUID: 26df61ca-d001-476d-bd98-bd2aafc20123
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 03 May 2022 16:38
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 16:45
Export record
Altmetrics
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics