In the Town Hall

Daniel Maclise made this drawing of a town hall using graphite on paper, sometime in the first half of the 19th century. The architecture is imposing, while the figure in the foreground is prostrate and seemingly defeated. Maclise was working in Britain at a time when town halls were symbols of civic pride, but also sites of exclusion. Who has access to power, and who is shut out? These are the questions that emerge when we note the contrast between the grandeur of the building and the desolation of the figure in the foreground. The artist may have been influenced by the social reform movements of his time, such as Chartism, that sought to expand voting rights and address poverty. Art history involves a look at archival sources – from political pamphlets to architectural plans – to understand the ways in which images participate in the debates of their time.