-
The portrait of Ignatius Sancho was painted at Bath on 29 November 1768 by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788). Gainsborough, perhaps the greatest British painter of the eighteenth century, resided at Bath from 1760-1774.
The portrait was engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi for the frontispiece of The Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African, which appeared in 1782. It came up for sale in 1889, occasioning a small flurry of letters in Notes and Queries.
-
-
An envoy from the court of Kongo, Don Miguel travelled to Brazil before arriving in the Dutch Republic, where the Dutch West India Company commissioned the artist Jaspar Beckx to paint his portrait. A total of six portraits of Don Miguel and his two servants (Diego Bemba and Pedro Sunda) were completed.
Dom Miguel’s attire, in the Portuguese style, testifies to his wealth and power, as well as to strong links between early modern Kongo and Portugal. By this time, the Dutch Republic was one of the largest traders in enslaved peoples globally. Diplomatic and mercantile relationships between the Dutch Republic and African kingdoms were key to this process.
-
George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower was born at Biala in Poland. The present drawing of him is apparently the only one to survive from his early years in London. It is the size of a large miniature, and in this and the sketchy finish around the edges but attention paid to the face, it is similar to some of Cosway's drawings of celebrities, such as Mrs Jordan [6.31]. The result is a focus on Bridgetower's celebrity as a black child prodigy, rather than on his skills at the violin. It appears from his age in the portrait to date from his first years in England, around 1790, which would fit with Edridge's style at this period when he was moving from miniature to larger pencil portraits.
-
This is the only known portrait of a black man in early European painting. He may have served at the Brussels court of Emperor Charles V, who had a black archer called Christophle le More among his bodyguards. The badge of the Virgin on his cap is a souvenir of a pilgrimage to Halle (Brabant), a favourite destination of pilgrims from the Brussels court
-
Portrait of general Thomas Alexandre Dumas; whole-length, directed to the right, holding hat aloft, and with sword in his right hand; in the background, a mountainous landscape with a besieged fortress on the right and a soldier firing a cannon on the left; open and scratched letter state
Mezzotint, stipple, etching
-
portrait of two young women has been variously attributed to German artist Johan Zoffany and British artist Joshua Reynolds; in 2018 it was freshly attributed to Scottish artist David Martin (1737-1798) based on style, sitter gesture, and fabric treatment (Scone Palace). It is in the grand manner style of portraiture, with an awe-inspiring background and a lifelike treatment of the sitters and their clothing. It was painted on the grounds of the Kenwood estate in Hampstead, with a bit of London on the horizon at bottom left, and is currently dated to c. 1778 (Scone Palace).
-
Painting of two young women collecting fruit is attributed to English artist Stephen Slaughter. This painting is currently titled Young Woman with Servant, but this seems to be a relatively new name with an updated description to support the renaming. The painting is referenced in books and online by two other names: between 1986 and at least 2003 it is cited as Two Women Gathering Fruit and before 2019 as Portrait of Two Society Women.
-
The Chevalier de Saint-Georges was one of the most accomplished musicians and athletes of his generation. Born on the West Indian island of Guadeloupe to an enslaved Black mother renowned for her beauty and a white French plantation-owner father, he was taken to France as a child to be educated. At thirteen he entered the Royal Polytechnic Academy of Weapons and Riding in Paris and soon developed into a champion fencer. This mezzotint responds to a London visit of 1787, made at the invitation of the fencing master Henry Angelo, where Saint-Georges participated in exhibition matches. During his stay, he was painted by the American artist Mather Brown and this print reproduces that now lost painting.
-
Sold into slavery as a boy, Jean-Baptiste Belley (1746–1805) bought his freedom in 1764. Belley fought in the American War of Independence and served as a captain in the French army during the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) fighting to abolish slavery on the island of Saint-Domingue (now Hispaniola). In 1793 he was elected to the National Convention in Paris, becoming its first black deputy.
Belley wears the uniform of a representative to the Convention. As we know from the painting for which this is a highly finished study or copy drawing, his hat feathers and sash are the colors of the French Republic: blue, white, and red. He leans against a marble plinth supporting a bust of the French philosopher and enemy of slavery Guillaume Raynal (1713–1796).
