There's a mystery man in red on display in the In Fine Style, the Tudor and Stuart Fashion exhibition at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, on til 6th October. Well actually, there's two. One has a whole room devoted to him. The other is not even mentioned in the interpretation, which, both on the wall in the gallery and on p.258 of the catalogue, reads: "Anne of Denmark is shown alongside her horse and hounds." The Queen's animals seem to be of more interest to the curators than this man in red. The trend continues on the Royal Collection website, where a later copy of the painting by Jan Van Belcamp is described as "without the horse, landscape background and fewer dogs." It is also bereft of the man in red. 

It seems odd that such a finely dressed young man should be entirely overlooked in an exhibition devoted to fashion. The colour of his garment is one that is associated with royalty elsewhere in the exhibition, the lace of his collar is very fine, and the artist has lovingly rendered the red ribbon of  his shoe. And yet somehow, he has disappeared into the background of Paul Van Somer's painting, unworthy of mention.

I was so excited to finally see this painting in the flesh, after having written about it and used it to illustrate lectures. The silence surrounding Anne of Denmark's African groom was deafening for me. 


I took  some comfort in the fact that there was no mention of the groom in the adjoining painting of Prince Henry either. Indeed the exhibition had nothing to say on the subject of servants' fashion. 

Of course my instinctive reaction was to immediately start telling the old man standing next to me all about the black presence in Stuart Britain, then to take lots of pictures (it was kind of the Royal Collection to allow photography) with this blog in mind. 

So, what ought the curators have mentioned about this other man in red? Well, here it's my turn to go red, as I don't know his name, or anything else about his life. But I can provide you with some compelling context!

We know that there were Africans working in royal and aristocratic stables across Europe. A painting of c.1630-2 by Daniel Mytens shows an African groom bringing Charles I and Henrietta Maria their horses. 

We know from household and treasurer's accounts that Anne of Denmark had an African in her household back in Edinburgh, c.1590-94. She also commissioned and performed with her ladies in Ben Jonson’s Masque of Blackness in 1605 and its sequel, the Masque of Beauty (1606), in which the black daughters of Niger seek "beauty" and become white, thanks to the rays of the British sun (which represented King James).

Going back to the painting, I was curious about the palace in the background, as this might be some clue to where the man in red lived. I learnt that this was Oatlands Palace, which James I granted to his wife in 1611. She made many improvements, including: "a new brick wall to compass and enclose her majesties vineyard at Otelands and the long privy walle addoiyninge to the same ass in levellinge the grene above the vineyarde being trenched very deep to kill the ferne rootes and making a Silkewormehouse ... seates of wainscott to stande in the vineyard ... A false dove for the privy walke..." The only part of the palace that remains today is a c.1545 entrance gate and part of the walls, swamped by suburban housing in Elmbridge, Surrey. 

So, perhaps we can have a Google Art Talk on this equally enigmatic man in red, or even better a whole exhibition devoted to the many Africans in British Portraits?

Last year Michael Ohajuru and I both spoke at an event at the British Library about Blacks in Renaissance Britain. He spoke about images of the Black Magi and other Africans in the art of the period, while I focused on a particular case in which 135 Africans had spent a week in Devon in October 1590. You can read my blog on the event here. 

The contrast between the image and the reality of the Black African experience really struck us, and so this year, we've decided to join forces during Black History Month in October to present our thoughts on The Image and Reality of Black Africans in Renaissance England, which we've called IRBARE for short. 
We've put together a website, Facebook page and Twitter account to promote this, so please do check those out/Like/Follow to hear more. Michael's already uploading lots of fascinating images, and I will be doing my best to keep up with some "reality checks"! And if you know any history societies, universities or other institutions who would like to book us for a Black History Month event, send them our way! To book, contact me or email IRBARE2013.

Hope to see you at one of our IRBARE events this October!