It was painted to celebrate the groundbreaking achievements of a mathematical genius who was Black and had been born into slavery. But for more than 260 years, that great scientific intellect of Francis Williams went unnoticed.
Now, clues exposed by an X-ray and high-resolution scans of the painting have finally revealed the extraordinary secret that 18th-century advocates of slavery sought to keep hidden.
New evidence uncovered by a Princeton historian, Prof Fara Dabhoiwala, indicates that the painting is the earliest example in western art of a named Black person celebrating their status as an intellectual.
The portrait of Williams, a wealthy Jamaican polymath who was freed from slavery as a child, was bought by the furniture curator of the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1928, primarily because it depicted fine mahogany furniture.
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