Thomas Gainsborough

Born on a slaving ship, musician and writer Ignatius Sancho (ca. 1729–1780) was the first known Afro-Briton to vote in parliamentary elections and receive an obituary in the British press. As a child, he was made to work for three sisters who gave him the derogatory name (after the character Sancho Panza in Don Quixote) that he would use thereafter. Upon a chance meeting, he impressed John, 2nd Duke of Montagu, with his intellect and eventually was hired as valet to the husband of the Duchess of Montagu. It was in the company of the Duke and Duchess of Montagu that Sancho sat for this portrait in Bath. In his only portrait of a Black sitter, Gainsborough omits any trace of Sancho's status as a servant, such as picturing him wearing the Montagu livery, which he would have worn when working. Instead, he presents Sancho dressed and posed as a gentleman, with one hand tucked into his waistcoat. The cost of the portrait would have been beyond Sancho's means. It may have been a gift from the Montagus or from Gainsborough himself, who had musical friends in common with Sancho and was known to exchange paintings for music lessons, instruments, and musical compositions.