Early visitors to Britain

There’s an exhibition opening today at the National Portrait Gallery called Between Worlds: Voyagers to Britain 1700-1850 which features portraits of people who visited or were brought to the UK, starting in the 17th century from the new colonies of the British Empire such as the ones in America, India, Africa and the South Pacific.

Among the paintings are ones of four Iroquois Indian chiefs who came to London in 1710, were presented to Queen Anne and had their portraits painted when she commissioned artist John Verelst to paint them for the royal collection. One of the chiefs, Theyanoguin, returned to Britain again in 1740 and this time met King George II. Theyanoguin and the Iroquois were allied to the British in their war with France in Canada.

Also featured are Indian social reformer and scholar Raja Rammohun Roy who died in Bristol in 1833 and Saartjie Baartman, a Khoisan woman from South Africa who was brought from Cape Town to Europe in 1810 and exhibited as a sideshow attraction around Europe. After her death her remains were kept on show at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris until the mid 1970s and finally returned to South Africa in 2002 after a request by Nelson Mandela.

Voyagers to Britain is on until 17 June 2007 and admission is free. The National Portrait Gallery is in St Martin’s Place on the side of the National Gallery building. Its open daily from 10am-6pm (9pm Thurs-Fri).