
Not on display
- Artist
- Manner of Sir Joshua Reynolds 1723–1792
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 450 × 360 × 21 mm
frame: 615 × 530 × 120 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Bequeathed by Mrs Mary Venetia James 1948
- Reference
- N05843
Display caption
This portrait is now thought to be Francis Barber, born Quashey (c.1742-1801). Barber was born into slavery in Jamaica, on a sugarcane plantation belonging to the British Bathurst family. He was brought to England aged 15, by his enslaver Colonel Richard Bathurst. In 1755, when Bathurst died, Barber was freed. He later went to work for English writer Samuel Johnson. This picture is one of many student copies of a painting by Joshua Reynolds. Previous titles, including A Young Black, may suggest that as a Black man, Barber was being treated as an artistic subject, rather than as an individual.
Gallery label, March 2022
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Explore
- people(22,059)
-
- actions: postures and motions(9,102)
-
- looking up(126)
- adults(20,109)
-
- man(10,460)
- body(4,885)
-
- head / face(2,504)
- ethnicity(4,898)
-
- black(803)
- named individuals(12,874)
- portraits(4,483)
-
- individuals: male(1,840)
You might like
-
Sir Joshua Reynolds Master Crewe as Henry VIII
c.1775 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds A Man’s Head
c.1771–3 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds The Banished Lord
engraved 1777 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Lord Ligonier
1760 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Doctor Samuel Johnson
?1772 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir James Hodges
1765 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Self-Portrait as a Deaf Man
c.1775 -
After Sir Joshua Reynolds Doctor Johnson Arguing
c.1770 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds The Hon. Miss Monckton
1777–8 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Admiral Sir Robert Kingsmill
1764 or 66 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn and his Mother
c.1768–9 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Francis Beckford
1755–6 -
Manner of Sir Joshua Reynolds A Young Black Man (?Francis Barber)
date not known -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney: The Archers
1769 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle
1769