Ayuba Suleiman Diallo
- Artist: William Hoare
- Date: 1733
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 30 in. x 25 in. (762 mm x 635 mm)
- Portrays: Ayuba Suleiman Diallo
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is “Ayuba Suleiman Diallo.” In the canvas the man stands at eye‑level, his profile turned slightly toward us. He wears simple, flowing robes that suggest religious dress, and he holds a Qur’an wrapped around his neck—written from memory. The oil on canvas, 1733, is rich with subtle brushwork that highlights the texture of cloth against a dark, plain background.
The sitter, born in 1701 in Gambia to a family of clerics, travelled widely after being freed from slavery. He was kidnapped in 1731, sold into Maryland tobacco plantations, escaped, and found himself in London where friends bought his freedom. Hoare painted him as an educated, pious man, giving us the earliest British oil portrait that honours a former slave as an individual equal to other subjects.
The work sits here on long‑term loan from Lusail Museum, Qatar Museums, 2010.
See it in person
Ayuba Suleiman Diallo 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.
