Black Presence in National Gallery Paintings

A Servant's Place

A significant number of paintings of black people show them as servants. They were used as a sign of affluence and luxury, part of the social display of their masters and mistresses (who were almost always white). The power relationship between servant and employer reflected the political and economic relationship between Africa and Europe for many centuries.

In this painting, Hogarth uses the image of a black servant for social commentary. The painting criticises the white countess and her hangers-on for their unthinking, uncivilised behaviour. It is so bad that even the supposedly less-cultured black servant is shocked when he brings the ladies their drinking chocolate. Hogarth turns one idea about black servants on its head - but he reinforces others at the same time. He uses visual stereotypes like the man's exaggerated lips, and has him gazing at a white woman in a way that could be seen as sexually charged.

There's a black page boy in this painting too, who points to the antlers of a statue. This signals that the countess is being unfaithful to her husband with the lawyer who lounges behind the boy.

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