The Penshurst Double Portrait

The Penshurst Double Portrait 

English School, 

17th Century 

H152 x W112cm (approx.) 

Penshurst Place, Kent

After nearly twenty years exploring the Black presence in Renaissance art, this double portrait stands out as the most astonishing and compelling painting I have ever  seen. To have been invited in at the very beginning of uncovering the identities of both sitters makes it even more extraordinary for me.

It hung  in the West Solar dining room at Penshurst Place, Kent home to the Sidney family since 1552, where its earliest recorded listing is dated 1743, and its entry in the list of paintings hanging in the dining room describes it as: Probably Charles Louis Stuart (1617–1680), later Elector Palatine, with his page. English School.

The West Solar dining room at Penshurst Place, Kent

The painting remains a mystery. We do not know who the artist is, why it was painted, or even with any certainty who the sitters are. The identity of the Black figure is entirely unknown, while the white figure, though named on the column, has now been shown not to be the person depicted. There are, however, clues within the painting. But first, let me explain my involvement.

I was first introduced to this painting two years ago, following one of my Image of the Black tours, and was immediately struck by this exceptional dual portrait: both figures -Black and white - presented at equal scale and with equal presence. I was asked to hold back from writing about it while the folk at Penshurst decided how best to introduce it to the world.

Baron’s Hall at Penshurst Place, Kent

I am delighted to report that what is now known as The Penshurst Double Portrait has been formally launched into the art historical world. I had the pleasure of speaking at the launch on 27 March, held in the magnificent fourteenth-century Baron’s Hall at Penshurst Place, with its sixteenth-century minstrel’s gallery—precisely the kind of space where court trumpeters such as John Blanke, the Black trumpeter to the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII, might be imagined to have played. However, Blanke himself could not have performed there, as he is last recorded at Henry VIII’s court in 1512. Yet he would almost certainly, have performed in the same room as Sir William Sidney (c1482–1554), courtier to Henry VIII and Edward VI, and the first Sidney owner of Penshurst. For more on John Blanke, see The John Blanke Project.

I spoke about the importance of this work in understanding and acknowledging the Black presence in Renaissance art and society, the event marked the beginning of a significant new initiative: The Two Boys Project a collaboration between Penshurst Place, the National Portrait Gallery, Historic Houses, and the Idlewild Trust.

The event was later featured on ITV Meridian News that evening and later on BBC Radio Kent, and BBC Local News Kent  each included interviews with me on the significance of the work. 

The composition of the sitters is striking. A dual portrait of a white elite figure and a Black attendant, yet both are presented at equal scale. This is rare - perhaps unique - in 17th-century European painting. Typically, Black figures, whether male or female, appear as marginal, subordinate attendants: reduced in size, placed lower in the composition, often positioned at the edge, looking up in admiration or service to the white sitter

Titian (circa 1520 - 1525)

Portrait of Laura de' Dianti 

H119cm W93cm

Heinz Kisters Collection, Switzerland

This convention can be traced back to 16th century Venice with works such as Titian’s Portrait of Laura Dianti (c.1520), where the small Black page is diminished in scale and pushed to the margins, functioning as a marker of status rather than as an individual presence. Similar marginal figures appear in English portraiture, for example in works by Anthony van Dyck. and William Dobson. 

Anthony van Dyck  (1634)
Princess Henrietta of Lorraine Attended by a Page
H213.4 x W127 cm

William Dobson (Pre 1646)
John Byron, 1st Baron Byron
H142cm x W120cm
Tabley House, Manchester University

In The Penshurst Dual Portrait , by contrast, the two figures occupy the same pictorial space, at the same scale. This is truly exceptional. That near life-size scale of the painting makes this even more remarkable. In European art of this period, there are only two comparable contexts in which a Black figure appears at equal scale to a white figure. The first is the Black King in the Adoration of the Magi, as seen in perhaps thousands of works produced at the time by such artists as Jan Gossaert or Paolo Veronese. The second is the figure of Saint Maurice, not as celebrated as the Black King never the less can be seen in hundereds of paintings from the period by artists including Matthias Grünewald and Hans Baldung.

Jan Goseart (circa 1510-15)
Adoration of the Kings
H 180cm W  163cm
National Gallery, London

Matthias Grünewald: (circa 1520 – 1524)
Meeting of St Erasmus and St Maurice
H 229 cm W 176cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Outside these religious contexts, such representation is extraordinarily rare. To encounter a Black figure presented at equal scale, in a secular, life-size portrait of this period, is therefore astonishing. 

That was my initial visual reading of The Dual Portrait composition. As to who the sitters are and what we can begin to understand about them - this is what I was to learn from the other presentations and discussions at the launch of The Two Boys Project

 What’s the role of National Portrait Gallery  ?

A copy of The Dual Portrait has been made and the original is now at the National Portrait Gallery, where it is being cleaned, stabilised, and closely analysed to better understand when, where, and how it was made. 

The first stage will be its conservation - removing dirt, mould, and layers of yellowed varnish to reveal hopefully a clearer, more defined image, closer to perhaps how it would have been seen some 400 years ago. This will be followed by technical analysis: microscopic examination of pigments and paint layers, alongside infrared and X-ray imaging to an attempt uncover how the work was constructed and what alterations if any have been undertaken over time. 

A life-sized replica will be on display at Penshurst Place, as part of a new exhibition named Who Are the Two Boys? In which the public are invited to help solve the mystery, while the original is being examined at the National Portrait Gallery. Currently the plan is to have the restored painting on display at the National Portrait Gallery in late September 2026 until March 2028, when it will return to Penshurst.

Who is the artist?

We do not know who the artist was. Nevertheless, I would suggest that they had direct familiarity with Black people and therefore knew how to paint Black figures from life. Such is the veracity of this Black figure when I posted this on social media one of my Black friends commented QUOTE You gotta let the NPG [National Portrait Gallery] know,  if nothing else to let them know how real this image is. It could well be an ancestor, a relation or a friend. UNQUOTE

Who are the sitters?

There is clearly an expression of wealth and status in this painting. The aristocratic sitter on the left is fashionably dressed in a pointed doublet, decorated with points (metal-tipped ribbons), and soft boots; the African attendant beside him is similarly well presented, dressed in rich livery and holding a cloak and a sword.

The inscription on the column on the right of the white sitter suggests it is PRINCE RUPERT, that he is thirteen years and four months old (AETATIS SVAE – IN THE YEAR OF HIS AGE), and includes a symbol that may refer to the astrological sign Taurus. However, the inscription identifying the sitter cannot be correct, because Prince Rupert was born in 1619. 

Also, is there perhaps some significance to the prominence of the boy’s golden spur? In 1626 a number of young men were created Knights of the Bath as part of the ceremonies for the coronation of King Charles I.

What is depicted?

The portrait may capture the sitters on the point of departure for a hunting expedition. The short sword held by the attendant is the type used to dispatch wounded deer, while the background—where another Black figure appears alongside a dog—suggests the hunt already unfolding.

That’s as much as we now know the public are now invited help solve the mystery of the work along with National Portrait Gallery.

Why does the analysis of this painting, and the recovery of the Black sitter’s identity alongside the white sitter, matter so much today?

For centuries, the Black presence in Western European portraits of elites with their Black attendants has been neglected - ignored, hidden in plain sight within both the paintings and their written descriptions. Today, that neglect is being challenged. Portraits once named solely after the dominant white sitter, with no reference to the Black attendant, are being reconsidered and consequently renamed. The Black figure once unnamed, unrecognised their presence is now acknowledged. The National Portrait Gallery has played its part in this shift in recent times in renaming to include phrases such as “with page,” marking an important step towards recognition. 

Unknown artist (c1711)

Sir John Chardin with an unknown male attendant

H135cm x W 135cm

National Portrait Gallery

For example, the National Portrait Gallery portrait of Sir John Chardin (1643–1713) illustrates this shift clearly. In the Wayback Machine entry of 13 August 2020, the work was simply titled Sir John Chardin. Two years later, when its National Portrait Gallery. webpage was next captured on 19 December 2022, it had been retitled Sir John Chardin with an unknown male attendant. I believe the National Portrait Gallery’s change, and those across many other galleries, were accelerated by the murder of George Floyd on 25 May 2020 and the global impact of the Black Lives Matter movement that followed as most paintings from the period in our national collection which included a peripherlal, marginal Black figure have had there titles updated to include some reference to the Black figure's presence .

Why is this renaming significant ?

Paraphrasing Marcel Duchamp, a title works like an invisible layer, shaping how we read a painting. Renaming a work offers another way of seeing—and in some cases, that shift brings the Black figure into view, moving from mere presence to identification, as names, histories and lives are put back into the image.

Joshua Reynolds (1782)

Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Harrington and Marcus Richard Fitzroy Thomas

Yale Center for British Art

For example, Joshua Reynolds’s full-length portrait of Charles Stanhope has been exhibited under several different titles:

• 1782: Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Harrington (artist’s studio)

• 1783: Portrait of a Gentleman (Royal Academy exhibition)

• 2014: Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Harrington, and a Servant (Yale Center for British Art)

• 2022: Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Harrington, and Marcus Richard Fitzroy Thomas (Yale Center for British Art)

That most recent renaming, following work by Victoria Hepburn, transforms the work into a dual portrait and adds life to the marginalised ‘servant’ figure. ( For more on the renaming listen to The BP2 Podcast Episode 7 Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Harrington ( 1783) by Sir Joshua Reynolds)

attributed to Lenthall, c.1692

Peregrine Tyam and Mary Lawley

Claydon House , Buckinghamshire

Jean-Baptiste van Loo, 1739,

Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork, and His Wife Dorothy Boyle, Countess of Burlington, with Three Children and James Cumberlidge

Chatsworth, Derbyshire

Other examples of Black “attendants” and “pages” being acknowledged by name in a portrait’s title, following the work of art historians, include Hannah Lees’s research on the 1692 portrait attributed to Lenthall at Claydon House in Buckinghamshire  now titled Peregrine Tyam and Mary Lawley. Similarly, Ed Town’s work has led to Jean-Baptiste van Loo’s 1739 portrait of Richard Boyle and his family being fully retitled to recognise their Black attendant, whose life has also been researched: Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694–1753), his daughters Charlotte (1731–1754) and Dorothy (1724–1742), his wife Dorothy Boyle, Countess of Burlington (1699–1758), and James Cumberlidge (1727/28–1788).

What we are seeing here is a shift - from anonymity to identity. These figures are no longer simply “attendants” or “pages,” but individuals with names, histories, and lives that can be traced and told. In naming them, we see they are worthy of recognition as a distinct personality we begin to restore both their presence and their humanity within the painting.

David Martin, 1778

Lady Elizabeth Murray and her cousin 

Dido Elizabeth Belle

Scone Palace, Scotland

Belle (2013 film)

Perhaps the most celebrated dual portrait of a Black and a white sitter from the 17th and 18th centuries is David Martin’s c.1793 work at Scone Palace in Scotland. At the turn of the last century it was known as Lady Elizabeth Finch-Hatton with a Negress Attendant. Today, thanks to the work of Paula Byrne, it is titled Lady Elizabeth Finch-Hatton and her cousin Dido Elizabeth Belle. Byrne’s research went on to inspire the film Belle (2013), directed by Amma Asante.

And  so to conclude, the film based on the life of Dido Belle offers a glimpse of what The Two Boys Project might become: perhaps, in time, a film celebrating the life of the Black figure and his relationship to the white sitter  - The Penhurst Boys -  shaped by the findings of the National Portrait Gallery and others involved in the project. I, for one, look forward to attending its premiere in London’s West End!

graphic created with ChatGPT

Black British History Scandal on the way to British Musuem....

The British Museum

One day in 1932, C. L. R. James was on his way to the British Museum, in Bloomsbury, when he saw the ‘magnificent figure’ of Paul Robeson, the singer, actor and scholar, walking towards him. They stopped to talk. James regarded Robeson as ‘a man not only of great gentleness but of great command: he was never upset about anything’. On this day, however, clearly bothered, he asked James whether he had heard the gossip 'about a coloured singer and a member of the British Royal Family’. 'It's not me, James', Robeson declared passionately. 'It's not me.' To Robeson's indignation, his friend laughed: 'What is there to laugh at? I don't see anything to laugh at.' James explained that, as a Negro from the United States' living in England, there was no disgrace in being linked to a member of the British Royal Family'. Hence his reaction: I laugh because you seem so upset about it. That is very funny.' Robeson was unmoved. 'They got the wrong Nigger in the woodpile, this time James', he protested. 'It's not me - Hutch (Leslie 'Hutch' Hutchinson) maybe - but not me!'

Donald J. Robeson Agonistes. In: Lusty N, Murphet J, eds. Modernism and Masculinity. Cambridge University Press; 2014:141-158.

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The royal gigolo: Edwina Mountbatten sued over claims of an affair with black singer Paul Robeson. But the truth was even more outrageous…

https://dizwhite.com/downton-abbeys-jazz-singer-inspired-by-scandal/

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A Personal Moment at the Imperial War Museum

Yesterday I visited the Imperial War Museum London to research its entry for my Guide to Black London. I didn’t expect to find something that felt quite so personal.

In the Second World War Galleries, in the Witnesses to War section, I came across Thomas Andi.

Thomas Andi was a Nigerian seaman in the British Merchant Navy — a civilian working on ships transporting commercial goods during wartime. On 18 December 1940, German raiders attacked his ship in the Atlantic. He was captured and taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany.

Displayed in the gallery is his thermos flask and a log book filled with photographs of fellow prisoners — small, human fragments of endurance and solidarity. The caption explains that 5,720 merchant seamen were captured during the war. Thomas was one of them.

Standing there, I felt an unexpected jolt of connection.

Michael N. Ohajuru (1924-1995)
Pier Head Liverpool

My father - Michael N. Ohajuru - was also a merchant seaman during the war. I still have his National Union of Seamen membership contribution card. He enrolled on 29 September 1943, in the Catering Department. He told me stories of being part of convoys across the Atlantic, just like Thomas but Dad's ships were never attacked and he survived the War.

Michael N. Ohajuru : National Union of Seaman Card

Seeing Thomas Andi’s story in the museum — publicly acknowledged, carefully preserved — reminded me how wide and varied the Black presence in Britain’s wartime history truly was. These were not marginal figures. They were part of the machinery, the risk, the sacrifice.

For me, the display wasn’t just historical research.

It was family.