Ignatius Sancho
- Artist: Francesco Bartolozzi
- Artist: Thomas Gainsborough
- Artist: John Bowyer Nichols
- Date: 1781
- Medium: stipple engraving
- Dimensions: 6 7/8 in. x 4 5/8 in. (176 mm x 119 mm) plate size; 11 1/2 in. x 8 3/4 in. (293 mm x 221 mm) paper size
- Portrays: Ignatius Sancho
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
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About this artwork
In front of us is a stipple engraving of Ignatius Sancho, created by Francesco Bartolozzi and printed by John Bowyer Nichols after a painting by Thomas Gainsborough. The image shows Sancho in simple early‑eighteenth‑century dress, his face rendered with delicate dots that give him a calm, thoughtful expression.
The engraving was published around 1781, although the original drawing dates to 1768, and it appeared as the frontispiece for “Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African” (1782). Sancho himself was born to enslaved parents in Africa and brought to Britain at age two. He received an education from the Montagu family, ran a grocery shop in Westminster, and became influential among society figures on abolition. In 1774 he may have been the first black Briton to vote in a general election. This portrait is part of the Reference Collection.
See it in person
Ignatius Sancho is in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery at St Martin's Place, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
