manner of Sir Joshua Reynolds

A Young Black Man (?Francis Barber)

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On loan

Atkinson Art Gallery (Southport, UK): Black Presence

Artist: Manner of Sir Joshua Reynolds 1723–1792
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 450 x 360 x 21 mm
frame: 615 x 530 x 120 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Bequeathed by Mrs Mary Venetia James 1948
Reference: N05843

Display caption

This is a version of an unfinished picture now in the Menil Foundation Collection, Houston. The existence of many versions of this work can be explained by the fact that Sir Joshua Reynolds encouraged his students to copy it. Other copies were made when it was exhibited at the British Institution in the early nineteenth century. The sitter is thought to be Francis (Frank) Barber (about1745-1801), the servant of Dr Johnson. Another possibility is that it is Reynolds’s own black servant. The original version was probably painted in the 1770s, a period at which the slave trade was still in operation in America and Europe’s colonies.

Gallery label, February 2010

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