#ystumllyn

[wwalab]

[medievalpoc]

Anonymous Artist

Jack Black of Ystumllyn, Wales

Wales (1754)

Oil on Wood, 22.5 x 32.9 cm.

(Bust-length portrait of a young black man, wearing a waistcoat and jacket, turned three-quarters to the left.) This painting was in the collection of Ronald Armstrong-Jones, until he died in 1966, and was located at GB/CAERNAR-FAN. Plas Dinas Estates. According to P T O L Armstrong-Jones (letter of 8 November 1991) in the future it will be returned to Plas Dinas, Caernarfon, North Wales. Inscriptions: Inscribed and dated at bottom: "John Ystymllyn 11 May 1754."

A Memorial of Jack Ystumllyn is at Saint Cynhaern's Church in Ynyscynhaearn. He was a black man brought back from Africa by a member of the Wynne family who lived at Ystumllyn House, which can be seen from the church. It was fashionable at the time to have a black servant and he eventually was given his own house. He had seven children and died at the end of the eighteenth century. Local people claim him as their ancestor.

ArtSTOR/[x] [x]