Scotland Times

Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Paintings reveal hidden histories of Africans in England

Paintings reveal hidden histories of Africans in England

English Heritage’s six portraits range from a Roman emperor to Queen Victoria’s goddaughter

Six paintings that tell fascinating, not widely known stories of people from the African diaspora in England’s history, including the Roman emperor who strengthened Hadrian’s Wall and Queen Victoria’s goddaughter, have been unveiled by English Heritage.

The heritage body commissioned six artists to paint portraits, putting them on display at forts, abbeys, historic houses and barracks where they have an association.

The project was about bringing their stories to life for a wider audience, said Anna Eavis, English Heritage’s curatorial director. “African figures from the past have played significant roles at some of the historic sites in our care but many of their stories are not very well known.”

The subjects include Septimius Severus, who was born in Leptis Magna, the present day city of Al-Khums in Libya. He travelled to Britain in AD208 and ordered the strengthening of Hadrian’s Wall and the reoccupation of the Antonine Wall, across what is now central Scotland, with a view to expanding his empire.

He has been painted by Elena Onwochei-Garcia who said she was drawn to Septimius because of her own multiheritage background, in her case Nigerian, Spanish and German. “This made me reflect on how people might imagine someone like us to look like,” she said.

“I wanted to go beyond painting Rome’s ‘African emperor’, to portray a complex individual by paying attention to his personality and how he chose to be seen in his coins, statues and architecture.

“Historically, black people have had little control over their portrayal. Septimius Severus embodied and altered the image of the Roman empire.”

The portrait goes on display from Wednesday at Corbridge Roman Town on Hadrian’s Wall.

Mikéla Henry-Lowe with her portrait of Dido Belle.


Another subject is Dido Belle, born in 1761, the daughter of an enslaved black woman and a British naval officer. She was raised as part of the aristocratic Murray family in Georgian London and spent much of her life at Kenwood House on the edge of Hampstead Heath.

Belle has been painted by Mikéla Henry-Lowe. She welcomed “the opportunity to paint a black woman who experienced growing up in an aristocratic family, because most depictions of black women in Georgian Britain were shown as slaves.”

Clifton Powell has painted Abbot Hadrian, an African scholar in Anglo-Saxon England and the abbot of St Augustine’s Abbey, Kent. Hadrian was from Cyrenaica, a Roman/Byzantine province in north Africa.

Powell said he had felt his subject’s presence since he started the portrait and played monastic Gregorian chants while he painted.

Hannah Uzor has painted the portrait of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, the daughter of a west African ruler who was enslaved by King Gezo of Dahomey, present-day Benin. In 1850, Bonetta was presented as a “diplomatic gift” to a British naval captain, Frederick Forbes, and taken to England.

Bonetta was introduced to Queen Victoria who was evidently charmed by her, describing her as “sharp and intelligent”. Victoria became her godmother and paid for her education in Sierra Leone and Gillingham, Kent.

Chloe Cox has painted Arthur Roberts, the son of a Trinidadian man, who was born in 1897 in Bristol and grew up in Glasgow. He served in the first world war and survived the battle of Passchendaele. The painting is on display at Berwick-upon-Tweed barracks in Northumberland.

The sixth painting is of James Chappell (1648-1730), a servant at Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire, who saved the life of the hall’s owner. He has been painted by Glory Samjolly.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Scotland Times
0:00
0:00
Close
UK Island Orkney council to look at proposals to become territory of Norway
Woman Awarded Over £100,000 After Being Fired for Transgender Tweet
A provocative study suggests: Left-Wing Extremism and its Unsettling Connection to Psychopathy and Narcissism
A Real woman
Brand new security footage has just been released to the public showing the Active shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale drove to Covenant Church School in her Honda Fit this morning, parked, and shot her way into the building
China's foreign ministry branch in Hong Kong urges British gov't to stop the biased and double standards Hong Kong report
Double standards: UK lawmakers attack EU chief over Ireland claims
Democracy? Not for UK. UK PM rejects Scottish independence referendum, cancel democracy in BVI
UK urged to brace for economic storm
Women's own body dissatisfaction appears to influence their judgment of other women's body sizes
Prince William To Move Family Into Cottage Near Queen Elizabeth II
BOOOOOOS: Tony Blair receives royal honour
Captured Britons sentenced to death in Ukraine
Barbados PM Mia A. Mottley among Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People
Today's headlines
"Just One Of the Boys In School:" Years That Shaped Prince Charles
BVI Premier Rubbishes Claim Of Causing COI Delay
Comments on "Human Intelligence in a Digital Age" - A brilliant Speech by MI6 Chief Richard Moore, and the elephants neglected in the room
Bitcoin: BoE Deputy Gov wants to cancel democracy and protect the banks with regulations which infringe on people’s freedom, independence and benefits they get from their own money.
What are the Pandora Papers?
Taiwan-China relations at their 'worst in 40 years'
The attempt to hold Epik.com accountable for the content of its clients' websites is like blaming Gutenberg for the NYT's fake news that dragged the US into the pointless war against the nuclear weapons Iraq never had
×