The Black Gardener by Harold Gilman

The Black Gardener by Harold Gilman, 1905. This is part of a painting acquired by The Garden Museum in London in 2013. The painting remained in the Gilman family until it was purchased by restauranteur Peter Langan in the 1970s. The Garden Museum acquired the painting at auction. Despite efforts to identify the model, the Garden Museum has never obtained any further information about him - he may have been a gardener, or more likely a model who sat for Gilman. Some suggest he may have been a gardener seen by Gilman on a trip to Chicago. Whatever his origin, this was the first time a black person was depicted in British art as ‘neither servile nor in fancy dress’ who stands alone, as an individual, and not as part of someone else’s story. Full image in story...