Joseph Bouet in the Durham criminal court (c.1825–1856): picturing nineteenth century courtroom actors. Part 1: lines of enquiry

ABSTRACT Between c.1825–1856, a French-born artist, Joseph Bouet, made approximately sixty pencil sketches of legal actors in the courtroom at Durham; including images of judges, lawyers, and defendants. Legal imagery from this period in North East England is rare and our research (presented in two parts) is the first detailed analysis of these sketches by legal scholars. This article introduces our preliminary analysis of Bouet’s sketches. We explore potential theoretical approaches and demonstrate that the images show the law in practice in a specific nineteenth century context. The value of our analysis is in revealing what the images tell us about legal institutions, the people who worked within them and the ‘objects/subjects’ of the law. The study makes an important contribution to socio-legal scholarship in demonstrating the value of such images as an underused source in legal historical research. The sketches are also the subject of a second article, Part 2 which presents three detailed case studies. The articles can be read as separate and independent pieces, but each benefit from being read in conjunction with the other.


Introduction
The two Bouet volumes in Durham University Library into which over three hundred pencil portraits have been pasted present something of a conundrum. 1 February 2020, just before the Covid-19 lockdown, we began to explore a little-known collection of images by a French-born artist, Joseph Sebastien Victor Francois Bouet (1791-1856).Bouet settled in Durham, North East England, in the early nineteenth century.Two albums in Durham University Library archives contain over three hundred of Bouet's pencil sketches dated from c.1825-1856. 2 The drawings are pasted onto album pages in a seemingly random fashion. 3The choice of images, and the reason for their production, is unclear.A page may include a single portrait, a pair of portraits, or a collection of images.Some drawings are annotated with the identity of the sitter, but many are not. 4They range from sketches that appear to have been hastily drawn, others confidently drawn with a few pencil strokes, and fine portraits finished with meticulous detail.Figure 1 is an example of a typical page from the albums.
Many of Bouet's drawings are of significant Durham citizens, including clergy and members of the university, butmost interestingly to us as legal historianssome are of legal actors, including judges, lawyers, and, more unusually, defendants and witnesses.These sketches provide a fascinating snapshot of the characters at the Durham Assizes in the early to mid-nineteenth century.Legal imagery from this period in the North East is relatively rare, and this collection of approximately sixty images has not been the subject of detailed study by legal scholars. 5his omission may be attributed, in part, to a certain reluctance to engage with visual dimensions of law, articulated by Leslie Moran: 'the complex interface between law and visual culture continues to be a marginal aspect of legal study, research and scholarship'. 6Further, Peter Goodrich has commented upon, 'the absence of training in the visual and artistic dimensions of legality', which may affect our ability to see and interpret 'the robes and regalia, the Latin and the elevations, the ceremony and the insignia' in the formal courtroom. 7And yet, overlooking the visual is often a missed opportunity.
Images can relate toand shed light uponlaw's substance and operation, its form and content.As Thomas Giddens has observed, The law appears visually: in the layouts of judicial texts, the formatting of statutes, the gowns and costumes of judges and court staff, the uniforms of police officers, the architecture and layouts of courtrooms, the theatricality and ritual of the trial, the embodied presence of the lawyer. 8e potential for detailed study of the images of legal actors within the Bouet albums is significant, and we anticipate it will constitute an extensive research project.
Interesting questions arise around appropriate methodologies.For example, it is valuable to consider how these images contribute to the field of what has been termed the 'visual turn' within critical legal studies. 9We can position Bouet's work in the context of research into the visual culture of the courtroom,10 although it is significant and striking that Bouet chose not to depict the material surroundings of the courtroom: his images focus strictly on the people.We can also position Bouet's work within the growing body of scholarship on the interface between history, law and the image. 11Interactions between images and the courtroom have a long history, from the medieval to the present day; 12 for example, courtroom design and decoration is a physical expression of a society's relationship with ideals of justice, 13 relevant to its time and place. 14As Costas Douzinas and Lynda Nead noted, 'The power of spiritual, edifying icons is celebrated in every courtroom: in the wigs, robes, and other theatrical paraphernalia of legal performance and in the images of justice that adorn our public buildings'. 15Proceedings within the courtroom too can relate to the visual: images of court proceedings 'are charged with meanings; not simply those that relate to the particular cases concerned, but those that belong to the ongoing relationship between history, law and the image'. 16There are also possibilities to engage more fully with questions of theory and methodologies, on particular historiographical schools, or alternative approaches to the interface between law and visual culture, and how art historical scholarship could facilitate analysis of Bouet's images.However, these tasks are beyond the goals of this article.
Our research is presented in two articles The articles can be read as independent pieces, but each gains from being read in conjunction with the other.Part 2, Joseph Bouet in the Durham Criminal Court (c.1825-1856):Picturing Nineteenth Century Courtroom Actors.Part 2 Three Case Studies, comprises three illustrated case studies, exploring the social and legal context of selected subjects, to demonstrate the richness of the information we have uncovered when researching the drawings.In this Part 1, the aim is to outline and contextualize our ongoing research project, and to identify potential lines of enquiry to pursue.First, we outline the life of Joseph

Exploring Bouet as a man and as an artist
Biographical detail is not a diversion; to analyse any artistic endeavour it is important to understand the artist in their time and place.In Durham Bouet prospered and integrated into the community.In 1826 he was collector of the Land Tax for Elvet, and six years later he was Overseer for the Poor in St Oswald's parish.He and his wife ran a school for young ladies and, in 1837, they bought a freehold property in the centre of Durham.Bouet was listed in commercial directories as a teacher of French and drawing.In 1848, when applying for naturalization, he described himself as a lecturer in French in the University of Durham. 19The 1851 census listed his occupation as a retired professor at Durham University, although he was likely a teacher since there is no record that he held an established Chair.He also worked as a professional artist. 20The earliest description of him as an artist was in the Durham Directory for 1850.In the following year he reinvented himself, for reasons unknown, as Nicolas Sébastien Bouet, 'portrait painter', and was described as such in 1851 in The Directory of the County of Durham. 21Bouet died on 22 December 1856 aged 67.His obituary in a local newspaper noted his wide circle of friends, and the prominence of many of these individuals indicates his social status in Durham. 22iven our specific focus, we questioned what motivated his courtroom sketches.Establishing associations which could explain Bouet's presence in a courtroom provides context to address the images he created whilst he was there.Yet, for most of his lifetime there was no official reason for Bouet to attend and sketch in the Durham Court.His interest in law and justice may have stemmed from his experiences as the child of emigres who fled a revolution; or it might have been sparked by discussions with friends and neighbours, and meeting lawyers and notable men, as he played an active role in civic and legal life in Durham.He served on the grand jury at Durham Quarter Sessions. 23He even attended as a witness in a burglary prosecution in 1849. 24Bouet seems to have had an early interest in buildings associated with justice, sketching both Durham's old and new gaols (built in 1810 and opened in 1819). 25This may have been a continuation of his interest in drawing buildings, but our research has uncovered a further explanation for Bouet's interest in proceedings in the Durham court.Bouet was a close friend of the architect Ignatius Bonomi. 26In 1811, Bonomi received the commission to complete a Durham assize court. 27Both men lived on Old Elvet, near to the site of the new court building.Bouet sketched Bonomi and some of his buildings. 28Their friendship and interest in the law continued; Bonomi also served on the grand jury at the Durham Quarter Sessions and both were on the board of the local Penitentiary, which Bouet sketched for its rulebook. 29We suggest that Bouet may have been curious to visit the courtroom his friend had designed, and while there was inspired to record images of characters appearing in the proceedings.

Exploring Bouet in an artistic context
As an artist, Joseph Bouet is known primarily as a drawing master and lithographer; he was also a painter, draughtsman, and engraver. 30In addition to portraits, his prolific output includes landscapes, sketches of buildings, and streets.His pencil sketches in the albums range from the hastily drawn, or semi-finished, to confident portraits finished in fine detail.Most of his characters are produced by a few strokes with delicate lines.
For our discussion, it is helpful to set Bouet's work in the albums in its contemporary context, because it is not easily categorized. 31His preference for the pencil sketch fits within an established artistic tradition.From the 1830s, artists and art critics debated a 'sketch-finish' conflict, between the preparatory phases of paintingthe making of drawn and painted sketches and studiesand finished work.In nineteenth-century France particularly, the sketch was regarded as especially prestigious, considered a sign of genius and originality. 32Academicians and critics saw this work as an artist's personal reaction to a subject and there was prestige in working in the pencil sketch medium.Cross regarded, 'Bouet's own work, established in the French tradition and similar to the portrait drawings of Ingres, [as] a significant late manifestation of the genre' of the pencil portrait. 33Scholars of French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres counted over 450 extant pencil portraits. 34In his portraits of individuals, Ingres focused on the person, often in meticulous detail, rather than on background or setting: a focus also evident in Bouet's sketches of legal figures.Yet whilst Bouet worked in the French tradition, it is unclear where he received his artistic training.Although often thought 'Paris-trained', it is far more likely that he trained in Scotland than in Paris, as Burdon's research established that Bouet settled in Scotland at a young age and exhibited in Edinburgh. 35We find Burdon's research convincing on this question of where Bouet was trained.Given that Bouet likely trained in Scotland, the culture of portrait sketching there may offer context for Bouet's art. 36However, as a French exile, he may have chosen to study with a French master, albeit in Scotland or England, which could have led to an artistic training in a 'Parisian style' or the French tradition.
Perhaps the most well-known French images of judges are by Honoré Daumier, who 'acquired a reputation as a scathing critic of lawyers and judges' from his caricatures or 'comic portraits'. 37These are not life-like portraits. 38Similarly, English artist George Cruikshank produced etchings of 31 See also Cross (n 3) 8. 32 For an overview, see Nicole Myers 'The Aesthetic of the Sketch in Nineteenth Century France' in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2000).See also Cross, (n 3) 11. 33 Cross (n 3) 8. 34 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). 35Burdon (n 1) 21. 36  Heads of different types of people in connection with the law, which although more like Bouet's drawings than those of Daumier, also tend towards caricature. 39There is no evidence in Bouet's drawings of a satirical or political intent. 40Save for two images of convicted murderers reproduced in local newspapers, it appears that none of Bouet's drawings of legal actors were for public consumption or commercial gain. 41It is not clear what motivated Bouet to make his sketches of legal actors in Durham, nor does it seem he had an intended audience for the images.Cross speculated that Bouet's sketches were partly produced for his teaching. 42It may, of course, have been largely for his own interest or personal enjoyment, possibly to be shared with friends, a typical Victorian pastime, that Bouet chose to attend the courtroom and make his sketches.
Bouet was not alone in preparing sketches in courtrooms from the early to mid-nineteenth century.Preserved engravings and lithographs from pencil sketches of legal actors from this period indicate a general interest in images or portraits of such men. 43Abraham Wivell, an English portrait-painter and mezzotint engraver, made portraits of the Cato Street conspirators in Clerkenwell prison, and was commissioned to draw them again during their trial at the Old Bailey in 1820.In the same year, Wivell surreptitiously attended the 'trial' of Queen Caroline in the House of Lords, and rapidly sketched many of those involved, including lawyers and witnesses. 44The sketches were subsequently published, and Wivell established himself as a successful society portrait painter. 45His work can be distinguished from Bouet's sketches in the albums, not least because, as Wivell worked to commission for his portraits, most were highly finished pencil-drawings, albeit on a miniature scale, in contrast to Bouet's often minimally sketched or outlined figures.
There are other rare, archived examples of courtroom sketches, some collected into albums, such as Sebastian Evans' A Book of Sketches, including 39 George Cruikshank (1792-1878).George Cruikshank, Heads of Different Types of People in Connection with the Law.Etching by George Cruikshank after himself (Etching 1834). 40The handful of satirical drawings in the Bouet albums are more detailed, perhaps designed for public distribution; see Cross (n 3) 6. 41  There is no record Bouet exhibited his courtroom sketches, 47 and their presentation in the albums on paper cut from other sketch-or notebooks, or drawn on scrap paper, suggests they were not displayed.Whilst the visual similarities are intriguing, there is a significant difference: Bouet was not a lawyer and had no official connection to the legal profession, making his an 'outsider' or external perspective. 48nother approach to setting Bouet's work in its artistic context is to consider the purpose of a portrait.The aim may be to capture the likeness of the subject, or a caricature may exaggerate features for comic effect.A portrait can offer much more information than simply the shape of a face or the position of the features. 49A sketch of a judge, or a barrister in court, can reveal more than a photograph by capturing the emotional resonance of the legal proceedings.Thus, Bouet's courtroom portraits lend themselves to many further questions.Did Bouet intend to merely capture a likeness, or were his drawings an interpretation of events?Why sketch that person?What do the sketches tell the viewer about the subject beyond their outward appearance?Did the formata small pencil sketchaffect the result?Why did Bouet choose to capture a particular pose?Why on that date?The sketches focus on the head of the subject, usually shown in profile, sometimes with the torso, but rarely full length.Were these artistic choices, or what he could see from his position in the courtroom?

Bouet as a courtroom artist
Clues in the pictures suggest that Bouet sketched 'law in action', whilst in the courtroom.His pencil drawings are a fascinating form of courtroom art, featuring representations of legal actors from c.1825-1856.The images include judges, barristers, solicitors, defendants and witnesses, gaolers, a governor of Durham gaol, 50 a clerk of the peace, 51 and high sheriffs. 52In the informality of capturing images of those involved in legal proceedings, it is reasonable to question whether Bouet was acting as, in modern parlance, a courtroom artist, rather than a straightforward portraitist.Drawing on research relating to the practice of courtroom artists assists in analysing Bouet's courtroom sketches.
Modern-day official courtroom artists offer impressions produced from memory to illustrate events in a courtroom which cannot be televised. 53he artists face significant constraints on what, where, and how they can operate.English law largely prohibits photographing or sketching in court. 54As Lynda Nead noted, 'The [courtroom] sketch is a visual manifestation of law's oscillation between the desire to show and the need to regulate that visual display'. 55Although recent rule changes have allowed broadcasting of legal proceedings in some courts, prohibitions remain, leaving it unclear whether live sketching will be permitted. 56Such restrictions did not apply to Bouet, making comparisons difficult.
Moreover, the work of today's courtroom artists is created with the permission of the court.We do not know whether Bouet would have had, or needed, permission to sketch in court, nor from whom this would have been sought.As far as we can establish, Bouet did not attend the Durham courtroom in an official capacity.Nor is the intention behind his images of legal actors clear.Nead's criticism, that 'courtroom art condenses major criminal trials into generic, gently anachronistic images', emphatically does not apply to the sketches in Bouet's albums. 57Similarly, Nead identified 'a remoteness about the courtroom sketch which is a sign of the gap between the actual trial and its representation': because 'the image is made outside the sitting of the court and is not part of the legal process of the trial', the courtroom sketch 'does not infiltrate the hermetically-sealed world of the courtroom … but maintains and strengthens the essential borderline between the inside and the outside of the legal process'. 58Again, clearly this does not apply to how, where and when Bouet's made his sketches.We believe, therefore, that he created his images not as a 'courtroom artist', but as 'an artist in the courtroom'.

Bouet as 'an artist in the courtroom'
We cannot be certain what led Bouet to produce his images of the legal world in Durham.Was it because the courtroom provided good subjects for his art, or was his interest in the legal proceedings and the process of justice and the law?There is some evidence that an interest in the social spectacle, or the drama or theatre of the law, might have appealed as much as the cases to be heard. 59The dates on several sketches of high sheriffs show that Bouet attended the opening of the assizes. 60We have established, for example, that he must have attended the ceremonial opening of the Summer Assizes in 1854: his sketch of Baron Crowder is dated 22 July 1854 and newspapers reported that Crowder arrived in Durham between 7 and 8pm on the evening of Saturday 22 July 1854 and was conducted to the courts, when the commission was opened. 61As for his choice of subjects, Burdon has suggested, of Bouet's album portraits generally, Some were perhaps preliminary sketches intended to be completed in his studio.Others may have been unsold portraits that were rejected by the sitters.An alternative explanation is that Bouet might have drawn and collected portraits as a recreation and that the quality of his drawing was dependent on whether and for how long the subject was willing to sit for him. 62e apparent speed of the sketching, in the context of the action in the courtroom, supports the latter contention.
The assumption that Bouet made the sketches while physically in the courtroom at Durham leads to further questions.For example, from his images, can we establish where he sat?The Durham Crown Court was remodelled in 1870, and while the basic orientation probably remains much as it was, establishing Bouet's vantage point is not straight-forward. 63The images suggest he was on the same level as the judge which offers an indication.What might have been the practical limitations of sketching live court proceedings?Did Bouet make his sketches covertly, or overtly?At speed, or at his leisure?How many of the people Bouet sketched chose, or consented, to 59 On the ceremonies for the arrival of the judge and the opening of the assizes, see be represented?Most subjects did not 'sit' for him but were captured, in action, during their courtroom activities.If he sat in the public gallery, would his sketching attract attention, and who else might have been alongside him; perhaps members of a defendant's family?We know that Bouet served on the grand jury following his naturalization in 1848: did he sketch then?Did his vantage point change?Dates and the specific viewpoints of the images will help answer some of these questions.
We can draw upon a modern example of 'an artist in the courtroom'.Isobel Williams, who has written about what she draws whilst in the public area of the UK Supreme Court, sketches with permission, but as an interested outsider. 64She questions how the legal process 'looks' andparticularly pertinent to Bouet's practicehow a non-lawyer interprets the coded theatre on display.Applying questions posed by Williams to the work of Bouet will offer an illuminating perspective.
Having considered Bouet as an artist, and his motivations for sketching, the next section discusses the North East context of the images.

Bouet's images of actors in the mid-nineteenth century legal world of Durham
An important part of our research is to explore how, or whether, Bouet's images of legal actors can contribute to a more complete picture of the legal world of Durham and the North East of England in the early to mid-nineteenth century.Our analysis to dateand the case studies in Part 2establish that Bouet's sketches have the potential to be a significant resource.Legal imagery from this period in the region is rare, and Bouet's sketches offer a valuable exception.There are approximately 43 images of judges, ten of barristers, five of solicitors, five of high sheriffs and 25 of defendants or witnesses.However, classifying the sketches is an inexact science, because not all are conveniently labelled.Judges and barristers are identifiable as such from their dress (although not all are named).Solicitors and attorneys, lacking wigs and gowns, are identifiable only if named.Some subjects are labelled as defendants or witnesses, and there are drawings we are confident represent defendants or witnesses in the courtroom, because of their stance as if in the dock, but are not labelled as such.Most of the named defendants stood trial for capital crimes; one image features a judge wearing the black cap. 65It is understandable that almost all Bouet's courtroom sketches are of menwomen were of course excluded from the legal profession at this timealthough women would be present in the Durham courtroom and contributing to the proceedings as defendants, or witnesses, or in the public gallery. 66Bouet may indeed have sketched some of the women present in those capacities, but our research has not made any firm identification of the small number of sketches of women in the albums.
Looking at Bouet's images of judges and barristers, it is noticeable that there is no courtroom detail or context: the focus is on the individual.The legal professionals are drawn in official regalia, making these occupational portraits.That is an inevitable consequence of the circumstances of production: his images created in the courtroom reflect 'men at work'.There is no satirical intent evident, nor in Bouet's images of solicitors and attorneys.As Bouet has sketched these men in their professional capacity, was it as representatives of their occupation that he chose to capture their image, or was that how they consented to be represented?We have assumed that not everyone Bouet sketched would have chosen or consented to be representedparticularly the accusedbut that seems unlikely for the legal professionals, especially the judges.
The next section explores the images of judges in more detail.

The images as examples of judicial portraiture
Bouet's portraits of judges represent most of the images of legal professionals in the albums, whether by happenstance, or possibly he chose to concentrate on the figure who commanded the highest position in the court; he might even have hoped to win a commission for a portrait.Visual images of the judiciary have attracted much recent academic interest and research, particularly by Professor Leslie Moran. 67If we consider Bouet's images in contrast to, and in the context of, Moran's work on the official judicial portrait, an interesting angle emerges.Bouet's images of judges portray his subjects in their professional capacity, not as private men; yet the focus is on the individual, albeit in official regalia.However, the portraits are not staged or posed, making them markedly different from the official judicial portraits which are the basis of much academic study. 68Bouet's sketches of judges are striking in their informality and immediacy, allowing a window into the judiciary in action in the mid-nineteenth century.This can be seen in several sketches by Bouet of Sir Samuel Martin, Anglo-Irish Baron of the Exchequer (Figures 3-5), which are analysed in detail in a case study in Part 2 alongside other images of Martin (Figures 6-7).
Imagery plays a key role in the presentation of the authority of a judge and in establishing the legitimacy of the institution.Yet, Bouet's images are unusual and difficult to categorize, making them worthy of further study.He rejects a standard image of the stern, sober, larger than-life judge looking down at the defendant from a raised bench, in the omnipotent 'god-like' tradition.Unlike Daumier, or Cruikshank, Bouet's images of judges are not political.They depict judges fulfilling their day-to-day function.If we assume Bouet sketched with judicial approval, did the judges choose to be sketched in this way?This insight into a less formal dimension of their character can shed light on their outlook and approach.In this way, Bouet's 'informal' images lead us to think about the functions of judicial portraiture, and the making and consumption of judicial images, beyond carefully posed official depictions.

Bouet's images in the context of legal biography
Beyond his images of judges, Bouet's pictures of other legal professionals offer further scope for research.For example, how do the images of barristers and solicitors compare to contemporaneous images of legal figures in England?How do images of legal professionals compare to their contemporary reputations? 69What do they reveal about those who practised on the Northern Circuit? 70Who was briefed for which crimes?And with what outcomes?Understanding the everyday working of the law in a provincial assize court can be enhanced by knowing more about the lawyers who represented clients, who spoke in court, and presented the cases, and the men who judged.
As Wilfrid Prest has explained, If we want to understand the somewhat arcane specialised world of the law, and its impactboth for good or badon the social community, past and present, looking more closely at the lives of the individuals who inhabit it seems an obvious way to proceed. 71ages can add a layer to the study of legal biography.Indeed, David Sugarman has criticized Gwynedd Parry for not recognizing the importance of paintings, artefacts and objects in his examination of the worth of legal biography. 72How a legal actor chooses to present him or herself, in contrast with found or less mediated images adds to the story of a life.Moran explains that there are three 'biographical dimensions' to judicial portraiture: the picture itself, the social context of the painting of the portrait and thirdly the 'meaning' of the portrait. 73These three facets could be used to analyse the Bouet portraits.Although Moran's study concentrates upon formal judicial portraiture, a similar approach can provide a structure for interpreting the images of other legal actors.Bouet's images offer a new dimension to shed light on the people portrayed, offering exciting opportunities in the context of legal historical research.

Exploring Bouet's images in legal historical research
Legal historians have perhaps been more comfortable with words than picturesimages, where included, often feature as illustrations and adjuncts to blocks of text or slides, or to support conclusions reached by using other evidencebut there is a strong argument that images in a specific legal historical context deserve more academic attention. 74Images can support written evidence, but images are important sources in and of themselves.If treated seriously as evidenceas much as literature or documents in an archiveimages can pose new questions and provide new answers. 75hen discussing images, rather than text, it is equally important to consider context and function, although this may be challenging.Analysis of Bouet's sketches of legal actors is an important contribution to work on the use and importance of images in legal historical research.We demonstrate this in detail in three case studies in Part 2.
The sketches present images of everyday court life, but the lives of the individuals depicted are not ordinary, if only by virtue of their being in the courtroom.Through his sketches, we can examine not only Bouet's interactions with nineteenth century legal processes but those of his 'sitters' too.Significantly he chose to represent a broad spectrum of those involved in the legal process.As Linda Mulcahy and David Sugarman noted, 'the bulk of legal biographies produced have focused on charting the lives of the elite; most often white, male, heterosexual judges and barristers'. 76ouet's sketches include these people but also individuals who do not fit these categories, offering a rare opportunity to shift the focus from the 'legal' lives of lawyers and judges.
However, the images of lay participants in the Durham justice process pose problems of identification.Research in this area involves an exercise in detection. 77From those we have been able to identify, we estimate that Bouet's images include circa sixteen defendants and 2 witnesses.We have worked on the assumption that Bouet's sketches were intended to capture the likeness of his 'sitter'. 78But, what motivated his selection of defendants?Were they interesting subjects, selected for their artistic potential, or was it their crime that caught his attention?Was it compassion, or simply human interest?Or a combination of these possibilities?What do the sketches reveal of those who appeared in the dock in Durham?And for what crimes?
The images of mid-nineteenth century defendants are a particularly unusual set of images which encourage us to focus on the otherwise anonymous people in society who become the 'objects/subjects' of law.

Images of criminals in nineteenth century England
Portraiture has been used throughout history, 'to show the power, importance, virtue, beauty, wealth, taste, learning or other qualities of the sitter'. 79Nineteenth century portraits of English lawyers and judges feature, not surprisingly, white men from the upper or upper-middle class.However, Bouet also sketched the often-overlooked individuals at the trial the defendants.As Bouet likely made these sketches for his personal consumption, his 'sitters' were probably unaware of becoming his subjects.Their stance suggests that they were drawn as they stood in the dock, the rail appearing in some portraits.In analysing these images, we can draw on research into later convict photographs, such as the studies by Linda Mulcahy of suffragettes 80 and Peter Doyle's work on Australian police mugshots. 81However, Bouet's images differ in one crucial respect from these 'official' images of convicts.As Mulcahy noted, 'In the customs of the photographic portraiture of the mid-late nineteenth century, it was generally expected that mugshots should be frontal images, showing head and shoulders with no facial expression'. 82[our italics] Bouet's sketches go beyond that goal of early mugshots: his sketches are nuanced, capturing his interpretation of the emotional resonance of the legal proceedings.Through these albums, we can see and share Bouet's non-verbal responses to his experience of attending the Durham courtroom.Bouet does not offer images of a 'criminal other'these are sympathetic, realistic representations, not caricatured, grotesque or stereotyped.Convicted thieves, sentenced to be transported, are differentiated from images of the great and the good only by their location in the dock.William Jobling, the last man to be gibbetted in the North East, is presented without judgement, standing tall with matinee idol good looks. 83ouet's sketches direct the viewer's attention to the face of his subjecteach portrait focuses on individuality.The images offer evidence of the criminal body, an area which has seen increasing academic interest. 84He shows the clothing of the ordinary man and woman, and their physical response to the ordeal of a criminal trial, in many cases facing a capital charge.His images, drawn directly from life, enable us to stand 'face-to-face' with the criminal subjects depicted.These are not merely images of people, but of events.In effect, Bouet records acts of eye witnessing.The sketches are made contemporaneously with, and depict a specific point in, trial proceedings.As such, Bouet's images can be analysed as 'external' legal history, revealing the law in practice, and legal institutions at work in a specific nineteenth century context. 85Through these unusual sketches, we can address the visual under-representation of marginalized subjects in law, such as condemned men and transported convicts, and more generally the homogeneity of legal portraiture which, as Moran noted, reflects the historical and contemporary prominence of middle and upper class white men. 86Through the sketches, we can adopt a 'bottom-up' approach to legal history, rather than 'top-down'. 87As Costas Douzinas and Lynda Nead noted, Coming to the law, being subjected to the law, is about seeing, about images and imagining, about having the image of the law implanted on the soul.We can only know the law through its representatives and their imagesmore or less terrifyingtheir robes, fur or silk, their pates and wigs, their noses and gavels. 88 and through Bouet's sketches we can see both sides of the trial experience: not only that of the judge or lawyer as law's representative, but also that of law's subject, the defendant on trial.
A further exciting avenue for our research is to identify the defendants in Bouet's sketches and research their life courses.A single image from Bouet's albums can act as a catalyst for detailed studies of nineteenth century legal history.In identifying and researching the outcomes for individual subjects, we can reveal the impact of the law and the legal process upon the individual Figure 8. 89 This 'personalised' approach is a popular avenue for the public consumption of crime histories, seen for example in television programmes such as Murder Mystery & My Family and Murder Maps and being the subject of the Royal Historical Society's Colin Matthew lecture in Public Understanding of History, in November 2021. 90he sketches are an important resource in other respects.For example, there are few surviving images of transported convicts.Tasmania and Western Australia were the only colonies receiving new convicts when photography was available.Photographic records of prisoners were not common until the 1860s.Bouet's images of felons may be our best opportunity to gaze upon the faces of marginalized subjects, such as transported convicts, from the first half of the nineteenth century.One such example is the subject of our final case study in Part 2 (see Figure 9).

Conclusion
We do not know why Joseph Bouet decided to sketch characters in the Durham courtroom, nor whatif anything -Bouet intended these images to achieve.We cannot know his motivation or aims and whether he had in mind commercial ambitions, or whether the sketches were simply for private entertainment.It is significant that Bouet was not a lawyer nor a legal actor, nor a court artist, as we might understand that term today.Notably, he was creating the imagesat least at firstas an artist and an interested outsider.However, we are fortunate that he has left a unique and valuable resource for socio-legal and criminological historical research.Whilst we face many choices in how to focus our research, the challenge is worthwhile: there is much evidence to be uncovered in and from the images, which are unique socio-legal documents.A study of such drawings makes an important contribution to legal historical and socio-legal scholarship.Bouet's images of legal actors in the Durham courtroom can be analysed as 'external' legal history, revealing the law in practice.The sketches capture both the ordinary and the extraordinary: from the everyday work of a provincial court to the features of judge and defendant as a death sentence is pronounced.The albums are of significance due to the breadth of legal actors Bouet sketched: judges and lawyers, gaolers and sheriffs, and, perhaps more significantly because of their novelty, witnesses and defendantsoffering a broad picture to inform our understanding of the nineteenth century legal world.
Researching Bouet's sketches of legal actors in the albums is an extensive project, which will enable us to interrogate more closely the use and importance of images to legal historical research and to explore what this cache of pictures can add to the literature on images of judges and justice in North East England and further afield.Part of our ongoing research is to establish what other images survive of nineteenth century judges, lawyers, and defendants, in the north east and in England more broadly.A further task will be to analyse how Bouet's images fit into that body of work.We will also attempt to identify the men and women Bouet sketched, to recover the stories within the two albums: some well-known and others presently lost.Our problem (a nice one to have) is the sheer quantity of images.A further challenge is that, as the work is unusual, it may prove difficult to establish a concrete theoretical or methodological framework.We can address the images in their legal, historical and/or art-historical contextseach offering different theoretical and methodological possibilities.
In Part 2 of this article, we present three case studies which expand upon aspects of this article and demonstrate the potential of the images as a resource by applying a further theoretical and methodological approach to the sketches of legal actors in Bouet's albums.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Example of a page from the Album of Joseph Bouet drawings (Durham University Library Add MS 1300/9-1300/14).[Reproduced by permission of Durham University Library and Collections].

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Unknown Photograph of Joseph Bouet (Durham University Library Add MS 17).[Reproduced by permission of Durham University Library and Collections].

66
Linda Mulcahy, 'Watching Women: What Illustrations of Courtroom Scenes Tell us About Women and the Public Sphere in the Nineteenth Century' (2015) 42 (1) Journal of Law and Society 53. 67 See AHRC funded project, 'Judging Images: The Making, Management and Consumption of Judicial Images' (AHRC AH/L007290/1) and Leslie J Moran, Law, Judges and Visual Culture (Routledge 2020); Leslie J Moran, 'Imagining the Judge: Fragments of a Study of Judicial Portraiture' in A  .Modéer and M. Sunnqvist (eds), Legal Staging: Visualisation -Mediatisation -Ritualisation: Legal Communication through Language, Literature, Media, Art and Architecture (Copenhagen University Press 2012) 205. 68For example, Leslie J Moran, 'Judging Pictures: A Case Study of Portraits of the Chief Justices Supreme Court New South Wales' (2009) 5 (3) International Journal of Law in Context 61.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3.Joseph Bouet, Sketch of Baron Martin (Durham University Library Add MS 1300/227A).[Reproduced by permission of Durham University Library and Collections].

Figure 4 .
Figure 4.Joseph Bouet, Sketch of Baron Martin and Frederick Aclom Milbank (Durham University Library Add MS 1300/236).[Reproduced by permission of Durham University Library and Collections].

Figure 5 .
Figure 5.Joseph Bouet, Sketch of Baron Martin (Durham University Library Add MS 1300/238).[Reproduced by permission of Durham University Library and Collections].

Figure 7 .
Figure 7. Carte de visite portrait of The Hon Baron Martin (The London Stereoscopic & Photographic Company).

Figure 8 .
Figure 8.Joseph Bouet, Sketch of Joseph Wooler (Durham University Library Add MS 1300/243).[Reproduced by permission of Durham University Library and Collections].

Figure 9 .
Figure 9.Joseph Bouet, Sketch of John Price (Durham University Library Add MS 1300/ 144).[Reproduced by permission of Durham University Library and Collections].
Legal Architecture.Justice, Due Process and the Place of Law (Routledge 2011) 1; and for example, Shailesh Kumar, 'Interpreting the Scales of Justice: Architecture, Symbolism and Semiotics of the Supreme Court of India' (2017) 30 The International Journal for the Semiotics of Law 637. 14On justice architecture and decoration in the nineteenth century, see Gaëlle Dubois and Amandine De Burchgraeve, 'Experiencing Justice in the Cour d'assises of Brabant (1893-1913): A Place of Education and Entertainment.';Stefan Huygebaert, 'The Judge, the Artist and the (Legal) Historian: Théophile Smekens, Pieter Van der Ouderaa, Pieter Génard and the Antwerp cour d'assises'; and Rahela Khoraki- 11On themes in studies on law and the visual, see Desmond Manderson, Law and the Visual: Representations, Technologies, Critique (University of Toronto Press 2018); and Anne Wagner and Richard K Sherwin (eds), Law, Culture and Visual Studies (Springer 2014).For an overview of studies of legal iconography, see Matthew C Mirow, 'Legal Iconography and Painting Constitutional Law' in MC Mirow and Howard M Wasserman (eds), Painting Constitutional Law: Xavier Cortada's Images of Constitutional Rights (Brill 2021) 10.On the image in socio-legal studies more broadly, see Mulcahy (n 9). 12See Resnik and Curtis (n 10). 13Linda Mulcahy, wala, 'Depictions of Justice in the Colonial Courts of British India: The Judicial Iconography of the Bombay High Court' in Stefan Huygebaert and others (eds), The Art of Law (Springer 2018). 15Costas Douzinas and Lynda Nead, Law and the Image.The Authority of Art and the Aesthetics of Law (University of Chicago Press 1999) 9. 16 Lynda Nead, 'Courtroom Sketching: Reflections on History, Law and the Image' in Michael Freeman (ed), Law and Popular Culture (Oxford University Press 2005) 173.
Bouet, and his work as an artist in the courtroom.We then address why Bouet's drawings of actors in the mid-nineteenth century legal world of Durham are worthy of study in the context of legal biography and legal historical research.The challenges of establishing a theoretical and methodological framework for our work are addressed, as the images are unusual examples of nineteenth century courtroom art.The potential of the images of defendants is explored, followed by a short conclusion summarizing what we have learned from our exploration of the sketches and suggestions for future directions for our research.
46seph Bouet, Sketch of William Jobling (DUL Add MS 1300/142); 'Execution of William Jobling', Newcastle Journal (Newcastle, 4 August 1832) 3; Joseph Bouet, Sketch of Jacob Frederick Ehlert (DUL Add MS 1300/136 and 1300/137); 'The execution of the Prussian Mate at Durham Yesterday' Newcastle Journal of Bench and Bar, c.1848-85.46Evanswas an artist, author, journalist, a student at Lincoln's Inn in 1855 andafter 1873a barrister.The earliest of Bouet's sketches pre-date those of Evans by over twenty years, but several of Evans' pencil sketches of legal figures bear similarities to those in the Bouet albums.It is unlikely that Evans would have seen Bouet's work.
1638> accessed 30 August 2022 and <https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/104750/louisa-demont-active-1814-1820-witness-trial-queen-caroline>accessed30August 2022.45SeeAbrahamWivell (National Portrait Gallery) <https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp07749/abraham-wivell>accessed 30 August 2022.See also, for example, Richard Cosway (Royal Academy of Arts) <www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/richard-cosway-ra>accessed 15 August 2022.members Sketch of J Bowes Esq.High Sheriff of Durham 1852 (DUL Add MS 1300/229B); Joseph Bouet, Sketch of Frederick Aclom Milbank, Sheriff of Durham 1853 (DUL Add MS 1300/236); Joseph Bouet, Sketch of double portrait Frederick Milbank with Baron Martin (DUL Add MS 1300/236). 53There is much debate as to whether such drawings are intended to be true likenesses, or rather whether they are drawn to convey the action and atmosphere in court.See for example discussions in 2022 around courtroom drawings of the Kardashian family in a US libel case (Angela White (aka Blac Chyna) v Robert Kardashian et al) and in the Rebekah Vardy v Coleen Rooney libel trial in the UK.
56The UK Supreme Court live-streams footage of certain proceedings.From October 2013 proceedings in the Court of Appeal can be recorded and broadcast to the public.The Crown Court (Recording and Broadcasting) Order 2020 (SI 2020/637) permits the sentencing remarks of High Court and senior circuit judges in certain criminal cases to be filmed and broadcast. 57Nead (n 16) 174. 58ibid 181.