The mystery surrounding a child’s identity in a Liverpool painting has yet to be solved.
The Black Boy is a painting by Pre-Raphaelite artist William Lindsay Windus and was acquired in 1948 as part of the Walker Art Gallery’s collection. It has been on display at the International Slavery Museum since 2007.
Little is known about the subject of the painting – who gawks at the viewer, “alone and barefoot in loose and torn clothing”. While the child’s identity remains unknown, there is a story attached to his chance encounter with the artist.
The boy was supposedly a stowaway who came to the city and was found by Windus on the doorstep of the Monument Hotel. Where the child was originally from remains unclear – however, it is thought he possibly travelled from America, where slavery remained legal until 1865.
Windus “took pity” on him and gave him work as an errand boy. The painting was then displayed in a frame maker’s window and a sailor relative of the boy recognised him. This relative eventually brought him home and reunited him with his parents. It is not certain if this anecdote – first told in an 1891 catalogue of paintings by Whitworth Wallis and Arthur Bensley Chamberlain – is true or not.
However, Kate Haselden, who has been researching the 180-year-old portrait for the museum for months now, is determined to find out if it is. She told the ECHO: “Information could be anywhere – maybe you have surviving documents from the Liverpool Academy of Arts in the 1840s (which Windus was a member of) or have letters from William Windus himself.
The Black Boy, a painting by William Lindsay Windus
“Perhaps Windus is an ancestor of yours. The child’s experience represents the agency and determination of Liverpool’s Black community in the 19th century. His story is central to the development and history of our city, and he deserves to be more widely acknowledged.”
New research has revealed the hotel in question stood at 125 London Road. Furthermore, it has been discovered that Windus’ mother Agnes ran the Monument Hotel, and he is listed as living at this address in 1841 and 1851 when The Black Boy was painted (c.1844).
It is thought that Windus “seemingly grew up in and around pubs and lodging houses” and because of this, this changed the previous interpretation of The Black Boy.
Many assumed Windus was a middle-class artist who was trying to paint an image of ‘picturesque poverty’ which would have been popular with Victorian art buyers. However, it is thought that because Windus was most likely a working-class artist he was “depicting a scene inspired by his family home and surroundings”.
Most recently, x-rays have discovered four hidden faces behind the painting. The thick paint applied on the canvas had given the team at National Museums Liverpool reason to believe there might have been something else painted under it.
The company believes it is likely the artist used the canvas for studies and practice before creating The Black Boy. As of now, it is the only known painting of a Black sitter to exist by the artist.
