In 1928, the V&A acquired a previously unknown portrait. It shows the Black Jamaican polymath Francis Williams (c. 1690-1762), dressed in a wig, surrounded by books and scientific instruments. In all of the previous history of Western art, there is no other image like this: a man who had been born into slavery, shown as a gentleman and scholar. The museum presumed it was a satire — but who had made it, when, where, and why, has remained a puzzle ever since.
Fara Dabhoiwala reveals the astonishing story of the painting’s true meaning, its connections to the greatest scientists of the Enlightenment — and Francis Williams’s extraordinary message to posterity.
This lecture was given at the Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre at the Victoria & Albert Museum, South Kensington, in association with the LRB, on Wednesday 16 October 2024.
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