The Painter's Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution

by Zara Anishanslin

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 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, American History, Historical, Art

382 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 1, 2025

Reviews

[Brad Eastman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a hard time giving a rating to this book. At times I loved it and thought it was a brilliant discussion of life in Colonial America and how the Revolution spread and impacted on very close neighbors. The book also tells the story of three American artists who spent time in London -Patience Wright, who made life-like, sculptures of historical figures in wax, Prince Demah, born enslaved in Massachusetts and sent while still enslaved to London to train as a portrait painter, and Phillis Wheatley, also born enslaved who became a very famous American poet. Ms. Anishanslin is at her best when she examines a work of art and decodes the meaning by placing it in the context of the day. She is also fantastic at understanding place as a driver of culture and ideology. I have read many books on the Colonial period and the Revolution and I still feel Ms. Anishanslin captured unique perspectives that make this a very valuable contribution to the field.

Overlaid on this wonderful history of the Colonial period is a sermonizing condemnation of how racist and sexist people were. I don't disagree, but Ms. Anishanslin should have let the story speak for itself. Instead, there are two books here - a history of the revolution and a polemic on the treatment of women and Blacks in American History. I felt very disjointed at times and think Ms. Anishanslin would have made her point more effectively, albeit more subtlety, if she skipped the preaching. I began to doubt her objectivity and wondered if she had culled "inconvenient facts" in order to support her moral message. She also overplayed the importance of these artists to the Patriot victory, insisting that they were able to provide intelligence that helped end the war, without offering any examples.

Ms. Anishanslin also rejects counter-explanations for the behaviors she condemns. Yes, Colonial America was horribly racist and sexist and exploitative of humans in a way that is morally reprehensible to us today. She tells an amazing story of three individuals who succeeded despite that environment, but fails to see how their very talent and success undermined the dominant ideologies of the day. Repeatedly, Ms. Anishanslin criticizes the enslavers of Prince Demah and Phylis Wheatley, but they were born in a society that imbued them with notions of racial superiority. Perhaps their very success chipped away at the ideological foundations of that society.

[Miriam Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An academic study of enslaved and formerly enslaved, free blacks, and women, on both sides of the Atlantic, who painted from the mid-1700’s through the American Revolution. This history is well laid out, the text is fluid and full of black & white illustrations of paintings and sketches.

If you are interested in reading about artists and their work set into an historical context, this is the book for you.

As we kick off the semiquincentennial (American 250), there are tons of books to fire the imagination and pump up our pride in our national history. Take uninterruptible time out of your busy evenings and weekends to savor this informative history.

Thanks to the William L. Clements Library (U Mich) Bookworm series https://clements.umich.edu/public-pro... for featuring the author Zara Anishanslin and her engaging study of artists and their paintings.

[Kidlitter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of the American Revolution that will offer the seasoned expert and amateur historian some fascinating new perspectives on a well-trodden subject - what other elements helped to spark and maintain the American Revolution's fire? Artists who both profited and burned from the cause - this is social history at its best.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so interesting! I knew very little about the transatlantic cause for American independence, and nothing about artists during that time, enslaved artists and their opportunities (or lack of opportunities) for training, the way transatlantic travel and relations influenced their legal status, and also the revolution. Art is political.