Image of the Black at the National Gallery

Cover Image: Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1564) The Adoration of the Kings (detail)

The National Gallery is one of the world’s greatest collections of European art. Hidden in its collection of over 2,500 works there are many black presences most times hidden.

This Image of the Black in the National Gallery is a live unscripted two hour introduction to the open, and often hidden black presence to be found in the Gallery’s collection, from subjects of economic capital to creators of cultural capital; musicians, kings, queens, slaves, servants, saints and artists, sometimes just as people.

The tour reveals the presences to be found in works from the great Renaissance masters including Titian, Dürer, Veronese and Gossaert, eighteenth century English portrature by Reynolds, Lawrence , Zoffany and Hogarth as well as the hidden presence to be found in the gallery’s buildings.

You'll be introduced to the religious, cultural and social significance…