The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840

Benjamin Haydon's The Anti-Slavery Society Convention of 1840 is perhaps his most historically significant painting — a comprehensive group portrait of over a hundred delegates to the first World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London in June 1840. The convention brought together British and American abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison and, controversially, women delegates whose participation was contested. Haydon documented the assembled delegates with the thoroughness of a visual reporter, making this painting an invaluable historical document of a decisive moment in transatlantic abolitionism. The National Portrait Gallery holds the picture, where its importance has grown as interest in the history of abolition has deepened. Frederick Douglass later identified individuals in the painting. It is Haydon's most lasting contribution despite never being the sublime history painting he aspired to create.

Haydon organizes over a hundred portrait heads across the convention hall with remarkable compositional control, the space receding convincingly under a vaulted ceiling. Individual faces are given sufficient individualization to function as actual portraits. The light is that of a hall meeting in natural daylight, creating a cool, even illumination across the assembled crowd.