ABSTRACT
After his death Methodism’s leaders quickly agreed on which were acceptable images of their late ‘father in God’. In the 1820s John Jackson’s synthesised portrait was commissioned to be the ‘standard’ likeness of Wesley: prints were produced in millions for global distribution through its missionary endeavours. The face of Wesley became inseparable from Methodist identity. Yet few of these, or other images of him, can be considered satisfactory likenesses. The development of the Wesley image, including its masculinity, against the backdrop of Wesley’s own and the denomination’s ambiguous attitudes to art and culture, have formed major elements of this study. In the end, most images of Wesley seem to be neither good likenesses nor good art.
