ABSTRACT
One of Wesley’s foremost successors, Adam Clarke, observed that very few likenesses of Wesley were ‘true to nature and creditable to art’. This conundrum is a major issue relating to Wesley as straightforward images in paint or print seem to have formed a continuum with caricature or satire since many artists evidently found difficulty in producing a faithful likeness of him. An underlying artistic tension in portraiture has been between lifelike appearance and uplifting idealisation: such ambiguity is exemplified in looking at images of Wesley and has led to several spurious ‘Wesley’ portraits.
