Thinking About John Simpson's "Head of a Negro"

I have been asked to write a short reaction to a detail from any painting of my choice from the Tate's Collection, for the art magazine TateEtc. There is so much to chose from, I love Turner, and Sickert, who is morbidly fascinating, I love the portraits of Reynolds and Gainsborough and Constable: and that's even before we get to the Tate Modern and talk about Roy Lichtenstein and Mark Rothko and Edward Hopper and Chris Ofili (who by the way, has a stunning new exhibition at the Tate). The only problem with the Tate for me is that they do not have nearly enough Dutch Masters ... Rembrandt and Vermeer, their imitators and their pupils, are my favourite artists of the pre-modern period. One of the most dazzling sensations I have experienced was being hit by the full force of The Night Watch in the Rikjsmuseum in Amsterdam. There may, I fear have been loud gasps.

Out of the wealth of the Tate, I have chosen this little known painting by the equally little known painter John Simpson. Called Head of a Negro, and painted before the abolition of the slave trade in Britain, it is one of the few remaining studies of a black man from that period. When I first saw it, I could not take away my eyes from his face ... and it is of that face that I will write about for the Tate magazine. Stay tuned.

Image copyright and souce: Tate Britain.