Two African Princes

The two men represented here—Ayuba Suleiman Diallo,also known as Job Ben Solomon (1701-1773), and WilliamAnsah Sessarakoo (ca. 1730-1770)—came to prominence in Britain in the 1730s and 1740s. Both were Africans fromprosperous slave-trading families, who were themselves takeninto slavery and subsequently freed. They became celebritiesupon their arrival in Britain and were avidly discussed innewspapers, journals, and other printed texts. This engravingis based on two earlier oil paintings, probably commissionedby the sitters’ English supporters. Diallo sat for WilliamHoare of Bath (ca. 1707-1792) in 1733, and Sessarakoo forGabriel Mathias (1719-1804) in 1749. Diallo requested thathe be painted in his own clothes and is shown in a loose robeand turban with a small Qur’an hanging round his neck.Sessarakoo is dressed as a wealthy European gentleman ina brocaded jacket, perhaps in readiness for his presentationto King George II. Both men are depicted in accordancewith long-standing conventions of formal, bust-lengthportraiture; their torsos are slightly angled, but their facesaddress us frontally. printed in The Gentlemans Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, London 1750