Dempsey, John Church (McKechnie Section 6)

See Section One for main entry

In Section One I mention Dempsey's visits to Bristol in 1840 and 1841; he worked there in Lower Arcade. There is in my collection a silhouette by M. H. Frost (acquired many years ago in Bristol), behind which found a profile miniature in colour of a man, painted on card. This is in poor condition, but on the reverse there is a fragment of an inscription (showing '42' and part of the address, `Lower Arcade') which is defnitely in the same hand and format as the inscription on the back of a silhouette by Dempsey, taken at Lower Arcade in 1841, illustrated in Section Two (the inscription is illustrated in Section One). This profile miniature must therefore be by Dempsey (who must have revisited Bristol in 1842); it is the first example of its type to have been ascribed to him. In fact, the phrase 'Coloured 1s. 6d.' does appear on a handbill used by Dempsey in Liverpool and recorded in Section One. Dempsey was probably referring to bust-length profiles with the sitter's face rendered in flesh tints; the profile in question is an example.

The sitter is wearing a dark-brown frock-coat, a crimson waistcoat, and a dark stock. The profile is painted in water-colour, without gum arabic; the sitter's hair is painted in dark-brown, and his whiskers in a lighter brown. The flesh tints are well shown, greyish-blue being used for shadow beneath the chin and nose. Thinned vermilion pigment is used on the cheeks and lips. The sitter's eyebrow and eyelash are shown. Despite its poor condition, the profile can be seen to be well painted.

Ill. 1526