RA Collection: People and Organisations
Banker and art collector. Principal partner at Harman and Co., Director of the Bank of England from 1794 to 1827 and Governor of the Bank of England from 1816 to 1818.
In 1797 Harman acquired the famous Orleans painting collection from Walter Boyd. (The collection was sold in the following year to the 3rd Duke of Bridgwater). As well as being a collector, Harman was friends with many artists, such as the painter, collector and administrator, Charles Lock Eastlake PRA, who received his first commission from Harman, (The Raising of Jairus’ Daughter, 1812). In turn, Eastlake dedicated his translation of Goethe’s Theory of Colours to Harman. In 1836 he presented a print after Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Age of Innocence to the Royal Academy.
RA Collections Decolonial Resarch Project - Extended Biography
The Legacies of British Slavery database records Harman as an owner of enslaved people. The Bank of England has apologised for the involvement of Harman and other previous Governors and Directors of the Bank in the Transatlantic slave-trade (Note 1).
Harman is also listed as a subscriber to the London Committee for the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade organised on 22 May 1787 (Note 2).
Notes:
‘Jeremiah Harman Governor of the Bank of England’, Legacies of British Slavery database, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/1380968975 (accessed 29 March 2022) and https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/18/bank-of-england-apologises-for-role-of-former-directors-in-slave-trade (accessed 29 March 2022).
See https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/people/jeremiah-harman (accessed 29 March 2022).
Born: 19 August 1763 in London
Died: 7 February 1844
Gender: Male