Edmund Burke (1729/30 - 1797)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Politician and author. Burke was born in Dublin and studied at Trinity College before moving to London in 1750 to study law. A philosopher and writer, he also served as a Whig MP between 1766-94.

RA Collections decolonial research: Reynolds’ sitters In Parliament, Burke regularly spoke on issues relating to Britain’s colonial activities. He advocated for liberty and free trade in India, France and America and described the Transatlantic slave trade as an ‘inhuman traffic’. However, his attitude towards enslavement has been described as ambivalent as he favoured the approach of ‘gradual abolition’. Burke was also a supporter of Catholic emancipation and was known for his criticism of the East India Company. He famously led the prosecution against Warren Hastings, governor general of the Bengal presidency, for ‘high crimes and misdemeanours’.

Burke was a close friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds and one of the executors of the artist’s will. He described Reynolds as ‘the first Englishman who added the praise of the elegant arts to the other glories of his country’. The two, along with Samuel Johnson and others, formed a literary dining society known as The Club which met in Soho at the Turk’s Head tavern.