Catalogue Number
NMLH.2018.180
Object Name
Painting
Place
St Peter's Field, Manchester
Events
Peterloo Massacre; Disrupt? Peterloo and Protest (exhibition)
Date
c.1819
Description
Framed polychrome painted glass depicting the Peterloo Massacre.
This rare glass shows the Manchester authorities violently dispersing the crows at St Peter's Feild, Manchester, on August 16 1819. The people had been peacefully demonstrating to show support for electoral reform when the Yeomanry entered with sabres drawn to arrest the main speaker, Henry Hunt, and to disperse the crowd.
This painting is a copy of the central section of the famous print 'The Peterloo Massacre' published by radical printer Richard Carlisle in 1819, and shows the Manchester Yeomanry dispersing the crowd, in it's original frame. Glass painting was a popular art form in the early 19th Century and was often displayed in pubs and homes; research conducted by Nick Mansfield suggests that this would have been painted by a local artist a few years after the massacre, possibly as an act of rememberance.
The painting's captions reads: 'A representation of the MANCHESTER and CHESHIRE YEOMANRY CAVALRY dispersing the Meeting that took place at St PETERS FIELD MANCHESTER on the 16 of August 1819. To the RADICAL REFORMERS of MANCHESTER'.
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