A rare 17th-century portrait at Penshurst Place is forcing a closer look at who was seen, and who was recorded, in early modern England.
Researchers at London’s National Portrait Gallery are restoring and studying “The Two Boys,” a double portrait of two teenage sitters, one Black and one white, that has hung for centuries at the historic house in Kent. Believed to date to 1626, the work is now being examined through pigment analysis, radiography, and archival research in an effort to identify the figures and better understand Black presence in Britain during the 17th century.
What makes the painting so striking is its composition. The Black sitter is shown at the same scale as the white boy, a rarity in a period when Black figures were more often relegated to the margins of portraits, if they appeared at all. British cultural historian Michael Ohajuru called that equality of scale “exceptional,” noting that Black figures in comparable works are usually smaller and pushed to the edge of the image.
The portrait’s history is itself layered with uncertainty. An inscription suggests it was made in 1626, but a later addition incorrectly identifies the white boy as Prince Rupert, cousin to King Charles I, and says he was 13. The painting was first recorded at Penshurst Place in 1743, though it is not known when it entered the Sidney family collection. It has been on public display since 1947.
Charlotte Bolland, senior curator for research at the National Portrait Gallery, has described the work as an “incredibly early” full-length portrait of a person of African heritage in England. She also called it ambitious and unusual, especially in the way it presents the two boys side-by-side, as if insisting on a shared visual status that the period rarely granted.
Conservators have already removed discolored varnish, allowing the image to come forward with greater clarity. The research has also drawn in dress historians, hunting historians, and genealogists, underscoring how many disciplines can converge around a single painting when its subjects remain unnamed.
Once conservation is complete, “The Two Boys” will go on view at the National Portrait Gallery from September through March 2028 before returning to Penshurst Place. A facsimile is already on display at the historic house as part of “Who Are the Two Boys?,” inviting visitors to consider the portrait’s unresolved identities for themselves. For Ohajuru, the work is already significant beyond attribution: it is evidence of Black Britons in the historical record, and of how much remains to be recovered.
