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Actions Displays	A Fellah of Kinneh Remove from selection Add to selection Reproduction Download mediaDownload as zip file Object number08059 TitleA Fellah of Kinneh Creator Thomas Stuart Smith (Artist)‎ DescriptionThe Fellah from Kinneh was painted in 1869 by Thomas Stuart Smith – the founder of what is today the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum. A prolific artist and abolitionist, there are three surviving portraits of black men by Stuart Smith in our collection. Standing in dramatic shadow, the man looks wistfully into the middle distance, wrapped up as much in his thoughts as in the Moroccan blanket around him. The softness of the technique and the warmth of the colours in the painting offer a romantic view, at odds with the life that a real Fellah from Kinneh would have led. Fellah is an old word for an Egyptian farmer or farm worker; Kinneh an old spelling of the town of Qena, on the eastern bank of the River Nile in Egypt. This painting is unusual not just because it is life-sized, but because of its subject matter. It was most likely painted in London using a model from North Africa. At this time black people were more often painted as servants – by choosing a black man as the central figure, Stuart Smith is stating his belief that all men are free. Thomas Stuart Smith submitted The Fellah from Kinneh to the Royal Academy Exhibition in London in 1869. It was accepted but not displayed in a prominent place, perhaps just too ahead of its time. Production date 1869 Object nameOil Painting Black History, Figure, MaterialOil/Canvas Dimensions image Height: 962 mm image Width: 660 mm frame Height: 1290 mm frame Width: 980 mm

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Download mediaDownload as zip file

Object number08059

TitleA Fellah of Kinneh

DescriptionThe Fellah from Kinneh was painted in 1869 by Thomas Stuart Smith – the founder of what is today the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum. A prolific artist and abolitionist, there are three surviving portraits of black men by Stuart Smith in our collection. Standing in dramatic shadow, the man looks wistfully into the middle distance, wrapped up as much in his thoughts as in the Moroccan blanket around him. The softness of the technique and the warmth of the colours in the painting offer a romantic view, at odds with the life that a real Fellah from Kinneh would have led. Fellah is an old word for an Egyptian farmer or farm worker; Kinneh an old spelling of the town of Qena, on the eastern bank of the River Nile in Egypt. This painting is unusual not just because it is life-sized, but because of its subject matter. It was most likely painted in London using a model from North Africa. At this time black people were more often painted as servants – by choosing a black man as the central figure, Stuart Smith is stating his belief that all men are free. Thomas Stuart Smith submitted The Fellah from Kinneh to the Royal Academy Exhibition in London in 1869. It was accepted but not displayed in a prominent place, perhaps just too ahead of its time.

Production date 1869

Object nameOil Painting

Black History, Figure,

MaterialOil/Canvas

Dimensions

image Height: 962 mm
image Width: 660 mm
frame Height: 1290 mm
frame Width: 980 mm