Overall: 62.5cm (24.2in) x 47cm (18.5in)
Mezzotint. Half length portrait of Bandsman James Frazer, Coldstream Guards. Published by Mrs W. Ross, No 7 St Albans Street, Pall Mall; and complete with ode to James Frazer beneath the image :-
“Oh had I but more space and leisure,
To sing the worth of honest Fraser.
Tho his complexion’s far from mine,
Yet both from the same hand divine.
Respect him therefore as a Brother,
Tho black his skin he has no other.
Staunch to our good King and Laws,
Firm to his noble Prince’s cause.
In manners gentle and with mind serene,
Sings well and plays his Tambourine.
The Likeness strong, the Painting neat,
By Mrs. Ross, St. Alban’s Street”
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James Frazer (1770-1800) was one of the black musicians in the Household Division that gave life to the Georgian fashion for ‘Turkish Music’. Western courts had long been enthralled by the Janissaries, the elite infantry corps of the Ottoman army that in previous centuries overran the Balkans and threatened Europe. In the popular imagination their approach was heralded by a barrage of what was then termed Turkish percussion: a melange of triangle, cymbals and bass drum. Black musicians were specifically sought out to emulate the exotic ‘character’ of the Janissary style. Consequently they were dressed in Ottoman Janissary attire, and played new and expensive instruments with significant visual theatrics. Frazer is recorded as performing for the first time in January 1789, accompanying the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards on Horse Guards Parade, alongside two other Black performers – John Johnson and George Smith. 10 April 1800. His funeral was attended by the society of Freemasons for whom he had performed as a member of the Coldstream Band.