Really amazing account both of the 18th C Black scholar Francis Williams, and of Dr. Dabhoiwala’s sleuthing that led to a re-appraisal of the meaning of this portrait. (Significant page number of a book shown in the art! Dates of books shown on bookcase!) 🧪🔭 www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Clues in painting suggest Francis Williams successfully managed to compute and witness trajectory of Halley’s comet over Jamaica in 1759
Wow, some parts of the painting are very well done and some parts not so much. I think the face is very compelling, and the details of the books and such... yet the hands and body seem out of proportion. I wonder if the artist was used to doing head portraits and struggled with the full body?
"...who was proposed as a fellow of the Royal Society at a meeting Newton and Halley attended in 1716, but was later rejected by a small committee “on account of his complexion” How very British