Mary Lomax 

(Chelsea, London fl. 1940s - 1960s)

Man from Antigua, c. 1950s   *SOLD*

oil on board

signed lower left ‘LOMAX’

50 x 60 cm.

This  striking portrait of a "Man from Antigua", by a little known woman  artist of Chelsea, Mary Lomax, was painted in the 1950s, the era of the  first Windrush generation in London. How Lomax came to paint the sitter remains a mystery, and the fact that she did not indentify him in the  exhibition label on the reverse of the board, is indicative of the  attitudes of the time - the standard exoticising and othering of nationality, over individuality. This was a moment, post-WWII, when Britain was still framing itself in the mantle of Imperialism. It is striking to consider that the sitter in this portrait may still be alive today.